


Dimming

by LokiofEarth



Series: Beacon [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, captain america: civil war - Fandom
Genre: Action, Angst, Basically a continuation of the AU with an OC inserted in, Canon Compliant to a Degree, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Characters have a lot of emotional baggage, Childhood Trauma, Domestic Avengers, Hurt/Comfort, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Parent Avengers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Natasha Romanov, Protective Sam Wilson, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Ross is an asshole, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Sokovia Accords, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, The Raft Prison (Marvel), Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:40:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 40,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23859226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LokiofEarth/pseuds/LokiofEarth
Summary: Harper likes to think that she's adjusted to being an Avenger.Turns out she was wrong, and it took the Sokovia Accords coming into play for her to realize that.
Relationships: Avengers Team & Original Female Character(s), Original Female Character & Natasha Romanoff, Original Female Character & Peter Parker, Original Female Character & Sam Wilson, Original Female Character & Steve Rogers, Original Female Character & Wanda Maximoff, Original female Character & Tony Stark, The Avengers - Relationship, the team are all bros to begin with
Series: Beacon [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1474337
Comments: 22
Kudos: 39





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> So welcome to the first chapter of Dimming! I'm excited to continue this series onto Civil War, so I hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> All comments and kudos are appreciated! Stay safe everyone! :)

Their mission's a simple one - find and apprehend Rumlow. Their intel suggests that he's gonna hit a local police station, which adds up when comparing his track record. That's where they found him last time - robbing a station. She doesn't understand why he'd waste his time robbing stations, especially knowing that he's been rumored to be involved in the illegal arms trade and independent terrorist groups. Robbing small police stations in African cities seems like a bit of a step down from that in terms of crime.

She got them all to their positions, teleporting each of the team individually so they could take their positions. Nat and Wanda are both positioned outside the cafe by the station, giving them an up close vantage point of where the intel suggests Rumlow will strike. Steve inside a nearby building, the station visible from the windows, whilst Sam's on a building up above, providing them with a top down perspective of the scene.

Harper's a bit further away from the station, taking a position about halfway up the block down an abandoned side alley. She doesn't exactly have to be close to see what's going on; having enhanced senses has its perks. She's focusing in on the station from afar, keeping her sights set on the perimeter around the station.

From experience, she knows how Rumlow's gonna strike. He's gonna approach from seemingly out of nowhere if he does appear, so they need to be checking the perimeter as well as the station itself. That's where she comes in.

"All right, what do you see?" Steve asks over the comms system, and Harper spots Wanda casually survey the scene between sips of her tea, blending in surprisingly well to the environment.

"Standard beat cops. Small station. Quiet street." She remarks, "It's a good target."

"There's an ATM on the south corner, which means?"

"Cameras."

"Both cross streets are one-way."

"So, compromised escape routes."

That's something that Harper picked up on herself. You'd think that it'd be a good target - it's not entirely economically developed, and it's crowded so it'd be easy for an assailant to get lost among the crowds of people after the fact, but at the same time there's not an easy way out.

"Means our guy doesn't care about being seen. He isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out." Steve concludes.

"Sounds about right." Harper scoffs, casting another glance at the entrance to the station, "He didn't give a shit the last time."

"Language, Harper." Steve warns, and Harper rolls her eyes at the incredulity of it all. He's really scolding her for cursing whilst on a mission? That's a new one.

Sam chuckles, "You heard grandpa, Harper."

She rolls her eyes for the second time, "Whatever, Wilson. You wait until he starts on you."

"Focus, you two." Steve warns, tone serious, and the two of them fall silent. She focuses up as Steve asks, "You see that Range Rover halfway up the block?"

Harper looks out for it. It's halfway up the block in the opposite direction to the side that she's on, but it stands out like a sore thumb amongst the dismal greys and browns of the street.

"Yeah, the red one?" Wanda quips, taking a sip of her tea and adding, "It's cute."

"It's also bulletproof, which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody. Probably us." Nat explains, glancing over at Wanda inconspicuously through her black-tinted sunglasses, and Wanda cooly responds with,

"You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?"

"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature." Nat replies, maintaining her position, and Sam chuckles over the comms system.

"Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?" He asks.

"Not to my face." Nat quips back calmly, "Why? Did you hear something?"

"In Nat's defense, I've probably added to that paranoia." Harper remarks.

"Added some grey hairs, too." Sam adds, making the two of them laugh, and Harper can see the disdainful expression on Nat's face from her position. It's priceless.

"Eyes on target, folks." Steve reminds them, tone serious, "This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in months. I don't want to lose him."

"If he sees us coming, that won't be a problem." Sam remarks, smirking, "He kind of hates us."

"And considering he didn't finish us off last time, he'll probably be pretty pissed when he sees us again." Harper adds, thinking back to the last time they ran into the ex-HYDRA operative. He was gunning to kill them. He wanted them dead. The fact that they're not probably isn't going to sit well with him.

"Sam, see that garbage truck?" Steve asks, adding, "Tag it."

She knows the garbage truck he's talking about. It passed her about a minute ago. The only observation she made was that it didn't smell so great.

A few moments pass, Harper and the rest of the team waiting for Sam to deploy Redwing, before Sam's voice comes back through comms, urgent and alert, "That truck's loaded for max weight. And the driver's armed."

She's the first who puts two and two together, though by that point her mask's down, her hood's up, and she's flying off in the direction that the truck went, calling out on the comms system as she goes,

"It's a battering ram!" She says, "I'm tailing it, but I can't teleport ahead unti-!"

She's the closest to the truck, the others springing into action a few seconds after she does, but by that point she can already see the collision up ahead and hear the sounds that come with it.

"Holy shit!"

No comment about her language, though she wouldn't have acknowledged it if there had been one.

She gets there first - they're at the IFID Headquarters, which itself is alarming and confusing - slowing as she notices the armed men with their backs turned to her. The windows are smashed, and she can see the gas spilling out from inside the building. There's no sign of Rumlow outside, and she's not particularly interested in getting to know the guys outside, so she pauses and taps on her control panel.

"A.M.Y?"

"Filtration system activated, Harper." Her robotic voice responds, a small whizzing noise accompanying it as the filters activate.

She figured it would be best to install them after the last incident.

She glances back at the building, quickly concluding that flying to get into the building is gonna result in her getting shot. Teleportation's looking like her only option, so she runs with it.

She materalizes inside the building, first noticing the darkness and the bodies lying on the tiled floor. She feels panic course through her at the sight, and though she can hear heartbeats she's not sure who they belong to. She rushes towards the nearest body, searching for a pulse, and she sighs in pure relief when she finds one.

"A.M.Y, what kind of gas is this?" She asks, fearing that it's paralytic like the last one.

"Halothane Vapor. Standard incapacitating agent."

Another sigh of relief. They're gonna be okay.

"Freeze!"

She stills, raising her hands and standing slowly. She turns, eyes meeting an armed gunman, clad in dark combat gear and a gas mask. One of Rumlow's associates.

"Don't move!"

She groans, rolling her eyes beneath her mask, remarking, "Well, I've got to do it now that you've told me not to."

She teleports behind him, hitting him square in the back with a devastating strike. His body flings like a rag doll across the room, crashing into the wall and knocking him out upon contact.

Her eyes dart around the room, and she notes that he's the only hostile in the room. She doesn't know if that should reassure or worry her more.

"Harper, how far out are you?" Steve asks, voice cutting over the loud siren ringing throughout the building, and she responds as she makes a dash for the staircase to the side of the room.

"Try inside the building!" She responds, reaching the stairs and noticing the '2F' sign accompanying it, "Be careful! There's some kind of gas in here!"

"Get out of there, Harper!" Nat warns, and Harper realizes what she's worried about and reassures her.

"Relax, Nat! I put a filter in after the last time!"

"Don't tell me you're gonna be in 'Momma Bear Mode' on missions now too!" Sam teases as Harper reaches the second floor, and Nat begins to respond to him, but it's lost beneath the sound of gunshots.

She dives behind one of the stone columns running through the room, presumably there to maintain the structure of the building, as the gunshots continue to fire, the assailants firing relentlessly in the hope that one of the bullets strike her.

She fights back by blasting light projectiles their way, occasionally ducking out from behind the pillar for a few seconds to aim her shot. She only knows if they hit when the sound of the gunshots decreases in volume.

"Where are you guys?" She gasps breathlessly, picking up on the sound of bullets whizzing past her ears, "I could really use some backup!"

She hears another window shatter, followed by multiple grunts and groans of pain, but she maintains her position. She hazards a glance again, jumping out when she sees that it's Steve, shield in hand and all of the armed assailants on the floor, out cold.

"That went well."

"Sam said that Rumlow's on the third floor." Steve says, making his way for the stairs leading up to the next floor, and she follows hastily after him. She assumes that Sam must've used Redwing to scan the building like he did for the truck. That means that if they're both here, Nat and Wanda can't be far.

"Nice to see you too." Harper quips, backing down when Steve shoots her a serious look, "Not the time. Gotcha."

The two of them rush up to the next floor expecting an assault like they received on the previous floor, except they find no one, save for the few workers of the facility that are on the floor unconscious from the gas.

They rush into a broken into containment capsule at the side of the room, the two of them realizing the same thing simultaneously. One of the biological weapons being developed at the facility is gone, shattered glass surrounding the container it would've been in.

Rumlow must've took it.

"Rumlow has a biological weapon." Steve says over comms, Nat promptly replying that she's 'on it'. He turns to her, tone level despite the severity of the situation, "I'll sweep the building. You get back out there. He can't have gone far."

Harper nods, "On it, Steve!"

She heads out of the containment room, rushing for a door at the other end of the floor that leads back outside. She bursts through the doors, realising she's out by the back of the facility, but that turns out to be just where she needs to be.

She sees both Rumlow and Nat atop an AFV; it looks like Nat might be winning their fight, but then Rumlow gets the upper hand and throws her inside the vehicle, dropping something small in there after her before jumping off.

"Nat!"

The scream tears its way out of her throat as the explosion goes off, flinging her smoke-covered body out of the back door of the vehicle. The smoke clears and she sees her move, but she struggles to sigh in relief amid her panic.

She focuses back on Rumlow just as he fires at her from inside another vehicle, and within her panic she can't focus enough to teleport before the blast hits.

She feels her back slam onto the concrete even with her suit absorbing some of the impact, and she lays there, gasping for air and fumbling around for her control panel to remove her mask from her flushed face.

"Harper?"

Nat rushes over to her, jacket now more black than its original color, and Harper manages to get the mask off. She tries to smile, relieved that Nat's okay, but it comes off as more of a grimace.

"That asshole's really trying to kill us, huh?" She jokes, though Nat doesn't laugh, instead helping her to feet.

"You okay?"

"Really gotta work on teleporting a bit faster." Harper remarks, the pain from the impact beginning to subside. She taps back into comms, asking, "Anyone got eyes on Rumlow?"

"He's in an AFV heading north." Steve replies, and Harper groans, mentally kicking herself for screwing up. Rumlow was right there. If she had just focused, she could've caught him.

Nat, as pragmatic and mission focused as ever, springs up, rushing over to a motorcycle that's been discarded on the floor. She lifts it up and gets on, looking over at Harper expectantly.

"You want me to get on that death trap?" Harper scoffs. Nat looks at her pointedly, signalling that this isn't something up for discussion or argument, so she concludes, "Getting on the death trap."

She could probably fly it - teleportation's sorta out of the question when she doesn't know exactly where she's teleporting to - but she opts not to question Nat as she gets on the back of the motorcycle, gripping onto her tightly as they shoot off after the AFV.

Now, she likes to think that she's not scared of a lot of things. She likes to think that she's brave, but she also knows that she's freaked out as her and Nat zoom through Lagos on a motorcycle. They haven't even got helmets on!

She practically throws herself off of it when Nat tells her to jump. She discards it right after, breaking off into a run when her feet hit the ground and jumping over a bunch of haphazardly parked cars that are in their way. Harper follows her as Sam's voice sounds over comms again.

"I got four, they're splitting up." He tells them as the two of them reach a fork in the road, two separate paths straying off in opposite directions down.

"We've got the two on the left!" Nat responds, taking the left, and Harper follows after her.

They rush down the crowded and cramped street, yelling at people to get out of the way and struggling to move around all the obstacles in their way. Every time they gain sight of them, they lose them again right after, and Harper quickly gets fed up of the cycle.

"Alright, I've had enough of this."

She jumps up and flies on ahead, avoiding all of the obstacles in the way with ease. She spots one of them - a slim man with a shaven head - and she pounces down on him from above, landing just in front of him and stopping him from getting any further.

"I've had enough running today." She groans exasperatedly, noticing the surprise and panic that settles in on his face, "Can't we just talk about this?"

He tries to strike her then, but she beats him to the mark, striking him straight in the chest with her palm and sending him flying back into a market stand.

"I tried to be nice, you know?" She quips, and that's when the second guy comes out of nowhere. She hears his gun click; she turns around rapidly and blasts a projectile at his chest before he gets the chance to fire it. He falls back, and as he does she notices a small vial launch out of his hand, and she concludes in an instant that it has to be the biological weapon that they stole.

She teleports over to it, catching it before it can even get close to the ground, and she smirks to herself when she has it safely in hand. That really wasn't as hard as she thought it would be.

"What took you so long?" She asks, turning to Nat when she runs over, and the older woman narrows her eyes at her initially before she notices the unconscious bodies of the men and the vial in her hand. "Yeah, I got it back. They really weren't as tough as they looked."

She passes the vial over to the older woman, who accepts it with what Harper thinks might actually be an impressed expression on her face. It goes as soon as it arrives, however, and Harper opts to tapping back into comms again, asking, "Where are you guys at?"

"South side!"

She can hear the urgency in Steve's tone, taking that as a sign to hurry up. She looks at Nat, perhaps expecting her to protest, but she says nothing, and Harper gives her a small smile before flying off again.

She loops around to the opposite side of the central building in the area within a few moments. She sees them - Rumlow and Steve - and it looks like the former is kicking the shit out of the latter. She lands as Steve goes crashing into a concrete wall, hands glowing brightly as she glares at the masked and armored figure of Rumlow.

"You!" He hisses, glaring murderously at her through his mask.

"Yeah, it's me, you asshole!" She snaps back, generating a staff of light between her hands and swinging out around threateningly, all reservations she had about keeping her anger in check now long gone as she stares back at him, "You did a shit job at trying to kill me the last time!"

She charges at him with a scream, swinging the light staff and striking him directly in the chest. It knocks him back, but he stands again as if it were nothing, striking back with remarkable strength that she struggles to intercept. The two of them fight hand to hand, strength on par, so much so that he manages to get the upper hand.

He strikes her like he did with Steve, kicking her up into the air and into one of the market stands, and she slumps down into it with a low groan.

Two times on one mission. Her track record isn't looking too great right now.

She stumbles to her feet again after what only feels like a few moments, but by the time she's up, Steve's standing over Rumlow, gripping onto him with a murderous expression on his masked face. What happens next plays out so fast that she can't even react.

She sees the explosion go off around Rumlow. She sees the shock on Steve's face when his flaming body becomes surrounded in red mist. Her eyes flicker over to Wanda - she hadn't even noticed that she got here - who's clearly struggling to control the energy that she's surrounded Rumlow and the explosion with.

She launches his screaming body up into the air and away from the civilians on the ground, but she loses control and it crashes into the side of the central building. The explosion ripples through the building, setting it alight across several floors, and Harper staggers back as the roaring flames shatter the glass windows of the building.

"Sam...we need Fire and Rescue on the south side of the building." Steve says shakily over comms, rushing towards the building with staggered steps, "We gotta get up there."

Harper's eyes land on Wanda, and as she sees the horror on the girl's face, she feels sick to her stomach as the reality of the situation sinks in.

* * *

Harper's pacing in the jet again. She's fine physically. The pain's subsided - it's been a couple of hours since the incident - and any injuries she did sustain will heal soon enough. She didn't get hurt enough for the process to be delayed.

Sam and Steve have been silent up front, only occasionally speaking about Rumlow and things in correspondence with their flight home. Nat keeps looking back at her, concerned, but Harper either doesn't meet her eyes or forces a compensating smile on her face when she does.

Wanda's the one who's acting the most distant, however. She's right at the back of the jet, strapped into a seat and staring absentmindedly at the metallic wall of the jet. She's barely been responsive since it happened, seemingly having gone into a prolonged state of shock.

Harper glances at her at several different intervals, seeing no change each time. It's by the fifth glance that she decides she has to try. She hesitantly approaches the unresponsive girl, kneeling down in front of her slowly and speaking in a low toned voice that's barely audible under the roaring of the jet's engines.

"Wanda?" She murmurs, reaching out and grabbing her arm gently, reiterating, "Wanda, look at me."

She's never really seen Wanda like this - maybe Sokovia was pretty close, but she didn't see her right after the fact so she can't really compare it.

She doesn't respond at first, and Harper considers backing off and giving her some space when she responds distantly, "I couldn't control it. It's my fault."

Harper shakes her head, "I should've blown a hole through the asshole's head when I had the chance. That's not on you."

She should've fought harder. If she was stronger, if she had maybe used a projectile instead of a staff, then she could've stopped him before any of this could've happened.

"How many pe-?"

"Don't!" Harper warns, stopping Wanda hastily because she knows what she's trying to ask. It's only going to make her feel worse, "Don't, Wanda. Please."

Wanda listens, sitting back, and that's when Harper sees her wince, her brow furrowing in concern at the sight, "How much pain are you in?" She asks.

Wanda doesn't respond, the glazed, distant look in her eyes returning, so Harper instead grips onto her arm again, eyes closing as she concentrates on extracting the pain.

She feels it pass over to her, hissing when it does. She doesn't understand how Wanda could've kept so quiet after feeling like this. It's vivid, stronger than anything Harper sustained on the mission, and she can't help but wonder how she got it. She knows that now's not the time to ask.

"Better?" She asks, opening her eyes after siphoning off the pain and forcing a small smile onto her face, though she can tell it comes off as a grimace.

"Thank you." Wanda murmurs, and Harper nods, standing with a wince as Sam announces.

"Approaching the facility. E.T.A: 2 minutes."

She limps over to one of the windows of the jet, deciding that it's best to give Wanda some space. The facility comes into sight once they begin to descend beneath the clouds, and Harper focuses in on the front of the facility, specifically the crowds of people that she only assumes to be reporters waiting outside.

"You've got to be shitting me!" She groans exasperatedly.

No comment about her language again, though she hadn't expected there to be one.

They touch down in the hangar a couple of minutes later. Harper's one of the last to exit the jet, hanging back to wait for Wanda. She walks alongside her but she doesn't force any conversation, not only for Wanda's own wellbeing but for the fact that's she concentrating all of her attention on fighting back against the pain.

Both Rhodey and Vision are waiting for them in the hangar, a solemn expression on the formers face, whilst the latter looks neutral as usual. Steve asks something about the reporters, and Rhodey shrugs with a sigh.

"News spreads fast." He remarks, "We're keeping them out until an official statement's been drafted. We've got people on it."

"Thank you, Rhodey." Natasha replies respectfully, and he nods back with a strained smile. None of them know how to react.

Wanda's the first to move, pushing past the group to head for the hangar exit silently. Vision turns to her as she passes, trying to catch his attention, "Wanda, I-."

"Let her go, Vis." Harper says, concealing a wince as she steps towards him, and he looks at her, perplexed.

"I just thought that I would-."

"Trust me. Give her a bit of time, okay?"

He nods respectfully before phasing out of the hangar in the opposite direction that Wanda left in, indicating to her that he's actually gonna listen and give her some space. Rhodey instantly begins getting a mission debrief from Steve and Sam, either one filling in the gaps where the other can't.

"Let's get you to the med bay." Natasha says, touching Harper's shoulder softly, and the younger girl winces and attempts to shrug her off.

"I'm fine." She insists. Nat doesn't buy it.

"I saw you wince." Nat argues, "You're in pain."

"It's not mine." Harper remarks, and Nat's face softens when she realizes. Sighing, she says, "Honestly, Nat, I'm fine. I think I'm just gonna go to bed. It's been a long day."

Nat doesn't argue and Harper appreciates that. She really can't cope with talking much right now. She just wants to sleep the pain off and maybe try and forget about what happened.

She's hoping the same for Wanda, but she knows that's unlikely.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated guys! Stay safe! :)

"Harper, what are you doing?"

Nat strolls into the lounge, pausing in front of Harper with her arms crossed. The younger girl isn't too phased by her arrival, too comfortable reclining back on the couch in her pajamas with a tub of ice cream in hand.

"Watching TV and eating ice cream." She replies between mouthfuls of ice cream, extending the tub out to the woman, "Try it. It's Stark Raving Hazelnuts. Thought I'd switch it up from Beacon Brownie Batter."

Nat doesn't look impressed.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" She asks pointedly.

"You're right! I forgot the popcorn!" Harper gasps, "I knew I forgot something!"

"You were supposed to meet with Jacquie today."

"Oh, yeah. That too." Harper remarks casually, shrugging, "Yeah. I called a rain check on that one."

Nat quirks an eyebrow at her, unimpressed, "Did you forget to call her and tell her that?"

So maybe she did, but in her defense that wasn't intentional. She glances around the room, almost expecting her to be there, before asking, "She's not still here, is she?"

"No, but-."

"Good because that saves me having to have a really awkward conversation." Harper remarks with a chuckle, going for another spoonful of ice cream only to find the tub empty, "And there goes my breakfast."

Nat quirks any eyebrow, tone disapproving, "You ate ice cream for breakfast?"

"I gave Wanda the last bowl of Fruity Pebbles." Harper replies, shrugging, and Nat's expression turns to one of surprise.

"She's talking to you?"

"She's _not_ talking to you?" Harper questions. She's noticed that Wanda's understandably been reserved since they got back from Lagos, but she hadn't realized that she wasn't talking to people. She hadn't realised it with that bad, "Maybe try bringing her food. That seems to be working for me so far."

"Stop trying to change the subject, Harper."

"I'm not." Harper protests, glancing back to the TV as a film trailer comes on, pointing it out to Nat excitedly, "Oh, have you seen this?"

"Harper!" Nat warns, moving to stand in the way of her and screen, "Why are you avoiding your therapist?"

Nat's getting fed up - Harper can see it on her face.

"I'm not avoiding her, okay? Contrary to popular belief, I actually like her. She's not patronizing." She admits with a sigh, adding when Nat gives her a look, "And before you say it, that wasn't me trying to say that you are, because you're not."

"If you're not avoiding her then why are you refusing to see her?"

That's technically not entirely true. She's not technically refusing to see her. She's just getting around it every time she's supposed to see her. She has her reasons - she's honestly not doing it just to be brat or anything. She's just got a lot more on her mind.

"I just don't think it's that important right now with everything going on." She explains with a shrug, standing from her seat and crossing the room for the kitchen, stopping by the freezer, "Besides, if anyone needs to talk to someone, it's Wanda, not me."

"She won't talk to anyone else. Occasionally you or Steve, but that's it."

That's the first she's hearing of this but it doesn't surprise her as much as it probably should. Wanda's usually the reserved type as it is, and given everything that's happened, it makes sense.

"That's because she feels like she killed twenty six people. And I've tried to tell her that it's not her fault, but she's insistent that it is." Harper replies. Wanda keeps blaming herself for what happened, and every time Harper insists that it was a group failure and that she did everything she could. It shouldn't have been on her to try and contain the blast - one of them should've clocked onto the bomb vest sooner.

"It's been less than a week, Nat. The world won't stop talking about it. She's got it in her head that people are scared of her, which they are but they're scared of us all of so..."

That's all the news is covering other than what happened in Lagos. Public opinion is mixed, though the majority are leaning towards a distasteful view of The Avengers. They're forgetting all of the lives they've saved in favor for the ones that they couldn't.

Nat's expression softens, and Harper can see in her face that she understands what she's saying. That she's seen the reports about them. It doesn't make her back down, "Still doesn't explain why you won't see your therapist."

Harper sighs, turning her back to Nat to search through the freezer, admitting, "I don't want to talk about Lagos and I know that she'll make me."

That's not the entire truth, but it's part of it. It's not like she's lying or anything.

"She won't make you."

"She's like a witch, I'm telling you. She doesn't even have to try and I end up talking about it."

"You're therapist isn't a witch, Ha-."

She turns back around, new ice cream tub in hand (Beacon Brownie Batter this time), and exclaims, "She's a witch!"

Now, she's not saying that witches are real, but Gods and aliens and superheroes are real, so she doesn't see why they couldn't be.

"You're having more ice cream?" Nat questions incredulously, temporarily forgetting about the topic of conversation when she notices the new tub in her hands.

"It's not for me." She replies, grabbing a new spoon from the drawer before slipping past Nat, heading for the door, "I'm gonna go to talk to Wanda."

"Harper, wai-!"

Harper glances back at Nat as she reaches the door, concluding, "I'm okay. You're okay. Time to move on."

She's not dead. That's how she should put it, but she knows that if she does it that way, Nat's just gonna go on another overprotective rant. She looks beyond frustrated at her as it is, so she decides to dash out of the room before she can say anything else on the matter.

She walks down the hall to the private quarters, stopping briefly in her own room to pick up the control panel for her suit and attach it to her wrist. She reaches the other girls door, tapping lightly against the wood, "Hey, Wanda. It's Harper."

"You can come in."

She accepts the offer, stepping inside the room and closing it quietly behind her. She finds Wanda sat on her bed, the TV switched on as background noise, and she takes a seat on the end of the bed alongside her. She stays there when Wanda doesn't ask her to move.

"Hey, Wanda. Check this out." She says. She holds out her wrist, taping around on her control panel until a holographic screen pops up.

"You rigged your suit so those meme things would play from it?" Wanda questions, quirking an eyebrow as the clips play.

"Vines, actually. But yeah." Harper corrects, retracting the screen and looking at Wanda with a grin, "Cool, right?"

Wanda doesn't say anything but she smiles, which Harper takes as a good sign. She wasn't only trying to distract herself with the small project, but she was hoping it might cheer her friend up a bit. It seems to have work, albeit only slightly.

She turns towards the TV then, noticing the topic of the broadcast that's airing, and without even a look she can tell that Wanda's focusing on it too.

"New details are coming in about the incident in Lagos. It has been confirmed that among the dead, eleven were part of a relief group sent from the neighbouring nation of Wakanda. King T'Chaka is soon to make a statement, though it can be assumed-."

She blasts a hole right through the screen before the reporter can finish talking, her hands having been increasing in their brightness the longer it remained on. The destroyed screen singes from the blast, and Harper glances back at Wanda to see her incredulous expression.

"Harper!"

She shrugs, "You can have mine."

"Why didn't you just turn it off?" Wanda questions, baffled.

"Because you probably would've turned it back on right after."

Wanda drops it, though Harper can tell that she's not impressed. She'll be fine once Harper gives up her TV.

"Weren't you supposed to be seeing your therapist today?"

"Took a rain check." Harper replies, shrugging. She pauses when Wanda gives her an all too familiar look, shaking her head profusely, "No, no, no. You don't get to give me that look. Nat already does it enough."

"You did it to me when you came in here." Wanda counters pointedly, standing her ground.

"I did?" Harper questions. She hadn't even realized. Perhaps everyone just does it out of instinct. Her tone turns apologetic, "Well, I'm sorry. I know it can make you feel like-."

"Like you're being pitied?" Wanda quips, though Harper can tell by her tone that she knows she's right. Even if it's nice to know that someone cares about you, it's still frustrating to be spoken to like some kind of wounded animal.

"Yeah. That." Harper responds. She reaches for the ice cream and spoon that she placed on the bed upon arrival, extending it out to Wanda with a smile, "This is for you."

The other girl accepts the offering, a slight teasing expression coming to her face when she notices the flavor of the ice cream chosen. Harper shrugs, "I ate all of the Stark Raving Hazelnuts, so..."

Wanda nods, opening the tub and taking a large scoop out of it with the spoon, mumbling a small 'thank you' in response. Harper smiles.

She understands why Wanda's been withdrawn. She's convinced herself that everything that happened is all her fault, that she's the reason everything's going wrong. Harper knows that she's guilty of doing that herself, so she doesn't want to be a hypocrite and try to tell Wanda the truth. She knows that she won't accept it. None of them ever do. It comes with the job, she's found.

She's just trying to support Wanda. She's trying to support her like she's always done for her, because right now it's clear that they all need to rely on each other.

There's another knock at the door, and Harper notices the way Wanda's expression shifts at the sound. She gives her a reassuring look before asking, "Who is it?"

"Steve."

She glances back at Wanda, looking for confirmation, responding to Steve when she receives a nod back, "Come in!"

He steps inside the room, remaining at the door, and he smiles kindly over at Wanda before setting his sights on the other girl, "Harper, can I talk to you?"

"I've already said that Wanda can have my TV. It's fine." She replies, and it's only then that Steve notices the gaping hole in the screen. He seems more perplexed than annoyed. Harper quirks an eyebrow, "That's not what this is about, is it?"

The two of them head out of the room, Harper promising to drop the replacement TV by for Wanda later. She closes the door behind them, turning to Steve when he stops just outside.

"Nat told me that you missed your meeting with Jacquie again." He says, his concerned tone rearing his head as he asks, "Is everything okay?"

"Why does everyone keep assuming that something's wrong?" She asks with a sigh. He maintains his expression as she adds, "I appreciate the concern, Steve, I really do, but I'm fine."

"No one's gonna force you to see her. We agreed on that from the start." He replies. Harper sighs, moving past him and beginning to walk down the hall. He follows, walking alongside her.

"I know." She says after a moment, glancing over at him as they walk, "And it's not that I'm avoiding her just to be a brat or whatever, I've just got a lot on my mind."

"Wanda." He concludes, realization settling in on his face, and she nods.

"Wanda. Lagos. That fact that the entire world is now insisting that we're the bad guys."

That's all the articles and news reports are saying, and if they're not directly saying it they're implying it. They couldn't save every life, and because they couldn't they're being branded as monsters.

"Do _you_ think that we're the bad guys?" Steve asks her.

It's a good question. She stills for a moment, considering her answer, before settling on it. She knows that they're not.

"No. I know we're doing the right thing. If we didn't do what we did in Sokovia, there would be thousands dead instead of hundreds, probably even more than that. And if we hadn't caught Rumlow..."

Her voice trails off. She doesn't even want to consider what would've happened if they didn't catch him. He had a biological weapon, and regardless of what he had intended on doing with it, it could've only led to more people being killed.

"It's hard to ignore something when the entire world tells you that it's the truth." Steve says sincerely. She stops again, turning to him and registering the solemn expression on his face, "Even when the whole world's telling you one thing, you've got to try and push past it."

Steve understands that more than anything. She's read about how Steve was before he had the serum. He's told her before about his struggles getting into the army because of how he was. It seemed like the fates were stacked against him constantly, yet he still pushed through it somehow.

"How did you do it?"

He considers his response for a moment, before saying, "Keep fighting, and when it's right, prove them wrong."

It's such a Steve ideology to live by, but it's also not a bad one. That's what he did - he fought for what he believed in, and he eventually proved everyone that doubted him wrong. He doesn't mention the damage experienced along the way, because no one ever does, but Harper understands that it's there.

Bucky's just one example of it.

"You reckon we can?"

He pauses again, unsure, before saying with a steeled tone, "I know we can try."

He's right. They can try, and something tells her that they're gonna have to soon.


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support guys! All comments and kudos are appreciated! Hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> Stay safe!

It's been a few more weeks since Lagos. Not much as changed. The news reports are still the same, casting doubt and fear on The Avengers and everyone a part of it. A lot of the reports have been pinning much of the blame on Wanda. Harper turns it off when she catches the other girl watching it, knowing that it's only going to make her distance herself more.

She's been getting better, Harper's noticed. She talks to the others now, though she's still reserved like she was after Sokovia. Harper doesn't like it, but she doesn't push the other girl because she knows from experience that's the last thing she needs.

She's still got a lot on her mind, though she's attending her appointments with Jacquie regularly again, mostly because she knew that Nat would only question her more if she didn't. The former spy would never admit it, but she was getting increasingly concerned. Harper could tell and she knew that she couldn't intentionally do that to her.

Jacquie's surprised her. She hasn't asked once about Lagos, nor has she managed to get her to talk about it on accident. They talk about other stuff - the happier stuff occasionally mixed in with some of the bad, but Lagos never comes up. She was supposed to have another appointment today, but they had to make alternative arrangements due to circumstances. Not that she minds. She's grateful that Jacquie hasn't given up on her yet.

"Thanks, Jacquie. See you later." She says with a smile, clicking off the video call with the therapist as Nat strolls into the room.

"You cancel again?" Nat asks, tone not necessarily accusatory but somewhat suspicious. Harper chooses not to take it the wrong way, knowing that it's just Nat's unnecessary concern appearing again.

"Nope. Her son's sick, so we did the session over video call." She explains, adding with a playful smirk, "Video call, Nat. You see, it's this wonderful piece of technology where-."

"Shut up or I'll take your guitar." Nat responds bluntly, passing her on her way to the kitchen, Harper laughing at her response.

"Love you too!"

She grins, turning back to her laptop and going straight to YouTube. Among the recommendations of vines and film trailers, she sees another video, title bold and congruent with everything being reported on every platform of media.

_KING T'CHAKA GIVES FORMAL SPEECH REGARDING LAGOS INCIDENT_

She knows that she shouldn't watch it - that it'll only add to the sinking feeling she's had ever since Lagos that every news outlet and article only adds to, but she does it anyway out of impulse.

King T'Chaka appears, dressed formally as he stands against a blue 'UN' backdrop. The flashes of the cameras are visible in the clip, but he keeps his composure as he says his piece.

"Our people's blood is spilled on foreign soil. Not only because of the actions of criminals, but by the indifference of those pledged to stop them. Victory at the expense of the innocent, is no victory at all."

She pauses it as Nat speaks up from the kitchen, asking, "What are you watching?"

"Nothing." She murmurs back, slamming the laptop shut. She knows that Nat hears it, but she doesn't mention it as she walks back over to her, water bottle in hand.

"You gonna go get dressed?" Nat asks, and Harper quirks an eyebrow at her, confused.

"Why?"

"Tony's coming over."

"So?" Harper questions, shrugging. She reaches for her bag laying down by the side of the couch, sliding her closed laptop inside, "Mr Stark won't care if I look like a slob."

"He's not coming alone."

"Who's he bringing?" Harper questions, confused, "Pepper? Happy?"

She knows that Mr Stark sometimes comes to the facility - even if he's not an acting member of the team, The Avengers are still his family - except he never usually brings guests with him. Pepper and Happy are the only two people she figures he could probably bring with him.

Nat surprises her by saying that it's neither of them.

"The Secretary of State, actually."

"Yeah, okay." Harper murmurs, standing hastily up from the couch and grabbing her bag, "I'll be ready in ten."

She doesn't know why Mr Stark's coming with the Secretary of State - she doesn't even know who the Secretary of State is - but it's clearly for an important reason.

* * *

She sees the rest of the team, along with Mr Stark, a couple of bodyguards and who she assumes to be the Secretary of State, inside the Conference Room from afar. They all seem to be waiting for her, apprehensive and stern expressions on their faces.

She teleports into the room, startling the bodyguards and the greying man they're protecting. The latter regains his composure, turning to her formally after straightening out his tie.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Harper." He says, though there's no niceness to his tone. It's strictly formally. He extends a hand out to her out of curtesy, "I'm Secretary Ross. If you'd like to take a seat, we can begin."

"What are we beginning exactly?" She asks, hesitating for a moment before shaking back. She glances around at the team, noticing their grave expressions, "What's going on?"

No one says anything. She goes to ask again, but then she makes eye contact with Mr Stark. He's sat in the corner of the room, in a leather chair away from the main table. She recognizes his expression because she's seen it before, and the familiarity of it makes her falter.

"Please." Ross says, gesturing to the empty seat at the table between Nat and Steve.

She takes the seat begrudgingly, resisting the urge to ask the adults any and all of the questions that she has as Ross begins his explanation. She tries not to glare at him as he talks - she's already not a fan of the guy.

"Five years ago I had a heart attack and dropped right in the middle of my backswing. Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass, I found something 40 years in the Army had never taught me. Perspective." He explains, tone wistful. He stands tall, glancing around the table at each of them as he talks, "The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives. But while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some who would prefer the word 'vigilantes'."

There it is. Harper resists the urge to scoff. She should've saw it coming given everything on the news.

"What word would you use, Mr Secretary?" Nat asks, unabashed and composed.

"How about dangerous?" He responds, "What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose, and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?"

That pisses Harper off. If only he knew how much it concerns them all. How much it tears some of them up inside when they remember how they failed, and despite the fact that they saved lives, they're constantly being reminded of the ones that they couldn't save.

She has to rush to try and dim the light she can feel building in her hands as footage from their various missions over the years flash up on the screen in front of them.

"Okay. That's enough." Steve says after footage from Lagos is shown, voice calm despite how distressing the images are, and Harper casts a glance in Wanda's direction.

Her anger spikes again when she sees the hurt on her friends face.

"For the past four years, you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution." Ross explains. One of the bodyguards hands him a large file that he then places down on the table in front of Wanda. Harper reads the title from her seat.

_'The Sokovia Accords'_

"The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries. It states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organisation. Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary."

Harper knows what it is. It's an elaborate control measure. A way to regulate them.

It's a way to use and control them.

"The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place. I feel we've done that." Steve responds calmly as Ross paces around the table.

"Tell me, Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?" Ross asks, stopping between Steve and Harper and looking down at the former, who tears his eyes away from the table to make eye contact with him, "If I misplaced a couple of 30 megaton nukes, you can bet there'd be consequences."

Yet another thing that pisses her off. Even if Bruce and Thor aren't here - she doesn't even know where the former could be - it doesn't make it okay to compare them to nothing more than weapons. They aren't weapons. They're people. Good people that just want to help people.

She doesn't even realize that her left hand's glowing until she feels someone latch onto it, pulling it underneath the table and out of sight. Nat looks at her pleadingly and warningly, reminding her silently to calm down. Ross doesn't notice as he moves back to the end of the table, reiterating his political spiel that Harper's progressively getting fed up of.

"Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground."

"So, there are contingencies." Rhodey says, the document now in front of him.

"Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords." Ross explains simply, heading for the door along with his bodyguards, "Talk it over.

"And if we come to a decision you don't like?" Nat asks, though most of them already have an idea of the answer.

He's telling them to talk it over, but realistically there's only gonna be two outcomes from this, only one of them even slightly positive.

"Then you retire." Ross remarks, and this time Harper can't resist the urge to scoff.

"Retirement at fourteen? That's a new one."

Ross stops and turns to her, as do the others. She can sense the looks they're all giving her, some warning and some prideful, though the latter is far more discrete. Neither deters her.

"It is vital that we compromise not just for the safety of the world, but for the future of our defenses." Ross says, "Some believe that we are entrusting far too much to the Avengers."

She knows what he's implying because people have said the same on the news.

"You mean some are skeptical that a fourteen year old girl is running around taking down arms dealers with a bunch of adults?" She questions.

She's seen the headlines. Beneath blaming The Avengers for all of the worlds catastrophes and Wanda's significance in what happened in Lagos, questioning whether or not a child should be an Avenger is the next big punchline for the press. She's seen it, she's ignored it for as long as possible, and now she's having to confront it.

"I mean that some believe you are being forced into all of this."

"You can't be serious?" She scoffs, disbelieving, and she feels Nat tighten her grip on her hand slightly. She chooses to ignore it, "I can teleport. If I really didn't want to be here, I could just leave.

"Signing the Accords will not only help us come to a compromise, but it will quell many of those concerns and complaints." Ross explains, right hand gripping his left wrist tightly as he keeps his formality and composure, though she can tell from his expression that it's strained.

"If you don't mind me asking, how will it do that?"

"Because you're being presented with a choice."

Now that's potentially the biggest piece of bullshit out of all of this. She scoffs, light flaring her hands despite Nat's constant grip, as she remarks coldly and bluntly, "This isn't my choice. None of it is. The only choice I've had is the choice of being an Avenger, and now you want to take that away from me too."

"It's important to us that we keep you safe as well, Harper. The accords allow for both you and the general public to live peacefully." He responds, and she laughs, perplexing him, "What's so funny?"

"You're a terrible liar."

Nat's grip on her hand is stronger than ever, but she shrugs it off, maintaining a steeled gaze at Ross as everyone else's eyes land on her.

"What makes you think that I'm lying?"

"It's not a thought." She responds cooly, "Your heart rate spiked. You might want to work on that."

He seems startled. She hears his heart rate jump again, and she notices the way the bodyguards shift in their positions, but he soon regains his composure, repeating, "Talk it over and get back to us."

Ross and his guards leave, the glass door closing behind them, and the eyes of the team remain on her. She pulls her hand from Nat's grip, pulling her hands up from below the table just as the light fades. They all look at her expectantly, and she shrugs back in response.

"Not my fault the guy's a liar."

* * *

They're all sat in the lounge, scattered around the room. Harper's taken a position by the wall, the Accords document itself in her hand. She's been skim reading it, skipping over certain sections when she recognizes it as nothing more than political spiel. Some of the acts within the booklet have been making her hands flicker, though she's been trying to regulate it before anyone else can notice.

Everyone's too engrossed in debating the situation to notice, which is good for her.

"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honour which is one more than you have." Rhodey states pointedly to Sam, who's spent the last five minutes arguing the Accords situation with the colonel.

Harper scoffs, flipping through to the next page of the document, "Secretary Ross is an asshole."

"See, that?" Rhodey responds, pointing an accusatory finger at her, "That's not helpful."

"It's more honest than half the shit he was saying." Harper replies, looking up from the booklet with an unperturbed expression, "You heard him. They don't see us as allies - they see us as assets. Medal or not, the guy's still an asshole."

"She's right." Sam says, glancing over at her with a small smile. She smiles back. At least someone agrees with her. He glances around at the rest of the group, "Let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?

"117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're just like, no, that's cool. We got it."

"How long are you going to play both sides?"

Sam's got a point. As much as she loves Rhodey, he does like to play both sides. She figures it's because of his background, but it's still frustrating. Surely he can see how messed up this all is.

"I have an equation." Vision says simply, speaking up from where he's sat on the couch by Wanda.

"Oh, this will clear it up." Sam says, all eyes turning to Vision expectantly. Harper even looks up from the document again.

"In the eight years since Mr Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially." Vision explains logically, "During the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate.

"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve asks, almost sounding offended by the implication, but Vision rushes to clarify.

"I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict, breeds catastrophe." He admits gravely, "Oversight...oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"Boom." Rhodey remarks smugly, Sam shooting him a look, and Harper scoffs again.

"I'd rather go down fighting than just letting whoever's challenging us win." She remarks, "Besides, if this 'challenge' is already on its way, I doubt the governments of the world are gonna be able to handle it with a couple of boys and bullets."

Rhodey looks at her incredulously, "Aliens? That's what you're thinking?"

"Not necessarily, but even if I was, would it be that far off from a possibility?" She asks, directing her sights to Nat, Steve and Tony in particular, "You guys have fought them before."

"It doesn't mean they'll come back." Nat counters, surprising Harper. She had expected Nat to be on her side.

"Doesn't mean they won't." She counters, noticing the unusual quietness of one person in particular. She comments, puzzled, "Mr Stark, why are you being so quiet?"

"It's because he's already made up his mind." Steve says bluntly, and Tony scoffs.

"Boy, you know me so well."

Tony rises from his seat, rubbing the side of his temple with a wince as he stands, "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache. That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort."

He goes to make a coffee, stopping when he's by the garbage disposal with an exasperated sigh.

"Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?" He asks, scoffing. Harper watches as he places a small device on the counter, tapping it on. An image of a boy, likely only a few years older than Harper, appears, and Tony nods towards it.

"Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA...had a floor-level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where. Sokovia."

That's it. That's what he was building up to. In hindsight, she should've expected it. She glances around at the team, noticing the solemn and hurt expressions on their faces as they come to the same realization as her.

"He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass." Tony finishes, malice in his tone. He stands, arms crossed and tone serious, "There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys."

"Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up." Steve counters, and Harper agrees. She holds her tongue for now, gripping the document tightly in her hands as Tony responds.

"Who said we're giving up?"

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions." Steve argues, nodding to the document over in Harper's hands, "This document just shifts the blame."

"I'm sorry, Steve. That is dangerously arrogant." Rhodey tells him pointedly, "This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not S.H.I.E.L.D., it's not HYDRA."

"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change."

"That's good!" Tony insists, pacing back over to the group, "That's why I'm here. When I realised what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing."

Harper knows that's the truth. She's seen footage from the press conference that he did right after he came back to the U.S. A lot of people thought that he was out of his mind, but he stuck by his decision.

"Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose." Steve insists, glancing around at the rest of the team as he talks, "What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

"If we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later. That's the fact." Tony admits, "That won't be pretty."

Harper got the sense that'd be the case after speaking to Ross. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that's gonna take 'no' for an answer. She also knows what else he's implying with that, and her eyes already drift over to Wanda before the other girl can even process it herself.

"You're saying they'll come for me." Wanda says, though she's not asking.

"We would protect you." Vision tells her, and Harper instantly agrees, adding confidently.

"They try anything and I'll blast them into the Atlantic."

If they even try to take Wanda, they'll be the ones being sent out of the country. Wanda just found a new home after Sokovia, and Harper's not about to let her lose that. Wanda glances at her, expression a mixture of surprise and gratitude, and Harper gives her a small smile as Rhodey looks at her exasperatedly.

"Again! Not helpful!" He groans, "Can you even do that?"

She shrugs, "Won't know until I try."

She intends on trying if they try anything. If all else fails, she'll just teleport them there.

"Maybe Tony's right." Nat remarks suddenly, catching the entire team including Harper off guard, and everyone's eyes land on her as she tries to reason, "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off...

"Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?" Sam asks incredulously, clearly just as taken aback as the rest of them.

"I'm just reading the terrain." Nat tries, "We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

Harper's been holding her tongue remarkably well so far, but she can't bring herself to keep that up any longer. She moves away from the wall, exclaiming, "You can't be serious! That asshole would probably be dead if it wasn't for us!"

"Maybe, but-."

"No. Not maybe!" Harper cuts her off hastily, looking at her with disbelief. She glances around at the others, "Are you guys forgetting Sokovia? Ultron?"

"That's not what we're saying, Harper."

"So what are you saying?" Harper questions, snapping back to Nat, "W-We back down and allow ourselves to be controlled? Let them turn us into what they want?"

"That's not what this is, kid." Tony says, tone warning, and she scoffs and brandishes the document in her hands.

"Have you guys even properly read this over? They're gonna treat us like lab rats!"

Tony shakes his head, "That's not true."

"Really? Listen to this!" She scoffs, flipping through the document until she finds the clause that she's looking for,

_"_ _Those with innate powers must submit to a power analysis, which will categorize their threat level and determine potential health risks."_

Or, in simpler terms: they're gonna be made into lab rats and likely locked up just for existing. It sounds all too familiar to what a few of them know.

"That may not apply to you, Mr Stark, but it does to some of us!" She snaps, brandishing the document angrily at him as he stands there, stunned by her outburst, "Me, Wanda, Steve, we're all gonna be examined because of what we are, and I'm almost certain that they're gonna consider us a threat when they realize what we can do!"

The three of them have been experimented on before, and Harper doesn't know about them, but she doesn't exactly want to go through it again.

Tony shrugs, "You did just say that you'd blast them into the Atlantic."

She inhales sharply, the sound of her heart pounding blocking her ears, and she can feel her hands flickering brightly before someone rushes to warn her.

"Hands." Nat warns, looking at her with both concern and authority, and Harper turns to her, perhaps expecting support.

She doesn't get it, and that's when she decides that she's had enough. She storms for the door, hands still glowing and the document gripped so tightly in her hands that her knuckles are turning white, but she stills when Tony says,

"We're gonna need that document back, kid."

She snaps, tossing it instead of passing it like a civilized, rational person would do, because right now she's neither. Her aim is off - not that she was really aiming in a specific direction in the first place - and it smashes right through the glass door of the conference room, shattering it with ease and casting glass shards everywhere.

She doesn't flinch, but the others do. She storms out without looking back, ignoring Nat's scolding and angered voice as her hands continue to glow brightly, anger building with each step.

The rest of the team remain in the lounge, some pissed off, some proud, but all of them stunned. It's silent until Tony breaks it, eyes narrowing in on Steve and Nat in particular.

"Excellent parenting, by the way." He remarks, heading back into the kitchen to get started on his coffee, "Really knocking it out of the park."


	4. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated! Stay safe everyone!

Harper walks into the kitchen, unsurprised to find it empty. Things have been quiet since Ross' visits. Tensions have been high because of conflicting opinions on the Accords, and of course there was the whole incident with the glass thats remained unspoken since it occurred.

She heads for one of the cupboards, knowing that the Oreos are in there - they're technically Sam's, but she knows he won't mind or notice if a couple go missing. She pulls at the handle, though instead of just pulling the door open, she ends up yanking the entire thing off.

That's the third time that's happened.

She thinks that it's because of everything that's going on. It's made her more volatile, more prone to anger. She's been struggling to keep her emotions in check, and her powers with it, so she probably shouldn't be surprised each and every time it happens.

"You're getting a habit for breaking things, huh?" Sam asks playfully, walking into the room. Harper turns to him, gripping the torn off door tightly in her hands and glaring over at him, making him raise his hands in surrender and step back hesitantly, "Hey, I was kidding."

Harper sighs, glare falling from her face. She places the door down on the counter top awkwardly and admitting, "I'm trying to control it."

She's been trying to keep it in check. At times everything's normal, and at other times she feels like everything's spiralling out of control. Some would say that's called being a teenager. Harper likes to refer to it as her life falling apart.

She focuses up, moving to take a seat at the kitchen counter as Sam takes a seat opposite, Harper pausing when she notices his outfit, "What's with the suit?"

"Making sure it fits for tomorrow." He replies.

"Tomorrow?" Harper questions, perplexed, "What's happening tomorrow?"

She knows that the Accords ratification is supposed to be tomorrow, but she doubts that it's the kind of event Sam's gonna be signing up for. If anyone disagreed with the Accords as much as her, it was Sam. Steve too, to be fair.

"He didn't tell you." Sam murmurs, realization dawning on his face. He sighs, tone and expression solemn, "Peggy passed. In her sleep. Same day that Ross came over. The funeral's in London tomorrow."

Her expression falters as the reality hits her. No, Steve didn't tell her, but she wouldn't have expected him to.

"I've read about her. Apparently she was a total badass." She muses, thinking back to all of the files she's read about Peggy. She didn't really ask Steve about her - she never thought it was her place to - but from what she found out, Peggy Carter was one of the greatest assets to S.H.I.E.L.D and an inspiring woman. She knows how important she was to Steve. "How is he?" She asks, and Sam shrugs.

"He's doing better than I would be."

She knows what that really means, but she keeps that fact to herself. As long as Steve's managing to cope, even barely, then it's okay.

Her expression shifts again when she spots Nat, coming into the room through the same way that Sam did before her. Her demeanor's serious, and she stops just behind Sam with her arms crossed and feet planted.

"Harper, I need to talk to you." She says, and Sam rises out of his seat.

"And that is my cue to leave."

"No." Harper counters, catching his arm, "Stay."

He stills, glancing between the two of them with an awkward expression. Nat seems annoyed by the contradiction, but she maintains her composure and stands her ground.

"I'm going to Vienna tomorrow for the ratification of the Accords." She explains, "I'd like you to come with me."

Harper has to force herself not to laugh at the suggestion. She's been the most vocal about her disdain for the Accords out of anyone, and now Nat wants her to go to a place full of people who agree with them.

"Now I'm definitely leaving." Sam murmurs, rising from his chair and hastily rushing from the room before Harper can stop him, leaving her alone with Nat.

The woman doesn't say anything else, maintaining her position and waiting for a response with a surprising level of calmness.

Harper scoffs, eyes remaining fixed on the countertop as opposed to Nat, "I thought I was dangerous."

"No one ever said that you were."

"Well, clearly you haven't read the Accords."

Nat sighs and loosens her posture, taking a couple of steps forward and sitting where Sam was before her. Harper finally looks up at her, surprised by the softness and understanding to her expression as she remarks, "I know what you think this is, and I'm telling you that it's not the same. This is nothing like what they did to you."

She's talking about it without explicitly talking about it. They do it a lot without realizing it, and Harper tends to prefer it that way, and this time it's clear what she's referencing.

She's surprised that Nat figured it out, because even she wasn't sure of it herself. She knew that it was on the back of her mind, but she didn't know if it was one of the driving forces of her disdain. Now she knows.

As she was reading the Accords, and as she thinks about what they said after the fact, her mind automatically draws comparisons to what happened with Ivan and HYDRA. To her, the Accords are a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"You're saying I'm scared?" Harper replies, tone defensive. She's putting up a front.

"Are you scared?" Nat asks calmly, tone completely non-judgemental and expression soft. She sighs, asking simply, "You trust me, don't you?"

Harper doesn't know why she's asking that question, because surely she already knows that she does.

"You know I do."

Nat nods, expression sincere, "Trust me on this one."

That's all she wants. Trust. Harper can tell.

"You can see how that's hard, right?" She questions, no malice or bitterness in her tone.

"I promise that I'm not going to let them hurt you."

Nat's tone is both insistent and reassuring. She's looking at her directly, and Harper doesn't have to listen to her heart beat to know that she's being as honest and sincere as possible. She should be reassured, and she is to an extent, but it makes her think about the other side of the situation.

"And what about all of you?" She counters, "Who stops all of you from being hurt?"

"We all do. We look out for each other." Nat replies, sincere again, "It doesn't matter how we stay together as long as we do."

Harper finally figures it out then. That's why she's agreeing to all of this. Maybe part of her does think the Accords is a good idea, but she can tell that's not the reason she's agreeing with them. She's trying to keep the team together. If they don't sign the Accords, they're either gonna be forced to or split up for not signing them. She still doesn't agree with the Accords, not in the slightest, but she can understand why Nat wants her to.

Compromise. That's what it is.

"Okay." She replies with a nod, and Nat quirks an eyebrow.

"Okay?"

"Okay." Harper reiterates, trying to come across as confident in her decision despite not being so in the slightest, "I'll come with you to Vienna."

"Thank you."

Harper nods back, suppressing her disdain and frustration for the situation. She can see the gratitude and relief on Nat's face, and she can't bring herself to ruin that even if she's still against all of this.

She's compromising, because she's certain that Nat's compromised for her too many times to count before.

* * *

Harper moves back over to the stove, cookbook in one hand and stirring spoon in the other, brow knitted in confusion as she tries to decipher the recipe laid out on the pages. She looks between the reference picture and her own concoction, quickly concluding that either she used the wrong ingredients or something must've gone wrong along the way.

It hardly looks edible, and the pot's steaming so much that it looks smoky. She's surprised the smoke detectors haven't gone off yet.

"Where is everyone?" Wanda asks, walking into the almost empty kitchen with a puzzled expression.

"Steve and Sam have gone to London, Rhodey's not here, and I don't know where Nat is." Harper replies, glancing over at the girl from the pot, "What about Vision?"

"Looking into something for Stark." Wanda responds, nose wrinkling when she smells the contents of the pot, and she glances over from the other side of the counter curiously, "What's that?"

"My failed attempt at making food." Harper admits, stopping her attempts at saving the 'food' and turning to the other girl, who seems baffled by her attempt.

"Aren't you supposed to be a genius?"

Harper shrugs, "No one ever taught me how to cook."

Wanda laughs lightly, suggesting, "Maybe we should just order a pizza."

"Maybe you're right." Harper agrees, turning back to the stove and switching it off before she can burn the kitchen down. She taps on her control panel, speaking clearly, "A.M.Y, can you place an order for pizza please?"

"The usual?" The robotic voice responds.

"You good with pepperoni?" Harper asks Wanda, receiving a nod back, and she adds, "Yeah, the usual. Thanks, A.M.Y."

"That'll be about thirty minutes."

Harper turns back to the pot once the A.I's voice cuts out, moving towards the trash can and dumping its contents inside.

"You're leaving tomorrow too, right?" Wanda asks suddenly, and Harper stills, placing the empty pot on the countertop, "You're going with Natasha to Vienna."

"How did you-?"

"I overheard the two of you talking earlier."

Harper smirks, taking a seat opposite the other girl, "And I thought I was the only eavesdropper on this team."

"Does that mean you're signing them?" Wanda asks, tone curious not accusatory, "I know that Vision already has. Rhodey, too."

That makes sense to her. Rhodey was on the side of the Accords from the beginning, and she would've been more surprised if Vision hadn't signed them.

"I always knew that they would. Vision's loyalties are always gonna be with Mr Stark, and Rhodey once was one of the people who comes up with this kind of stuff, so..." She explains, shrugging. She looks at Wanda honestly, "I still don't agree with the Accords."

"So why are you going to Vienna?"

"Compromise." She replies, elaborating when Wanda looks puzzled, "We shouldn't have to, but that's the best option right now."

"That's not what you were saying the other day."

Harper sighs. Wanda's got a point, and even she doesn't know what she's saying for the most part, but she's just running with it. "I'm not going back on what I said, Wanda. They try anything, I'll blast them out of the country."

"You sure you can do that?" Wanda asks, a teasing smirk on her face, and Harper laughs.

"You don't have faith in me, Maximoff?" She quips, smiling, and then she reiterates, "The Accords are beyond stupid and discriminatory. It's not like any of us asked to be like this. We did what we had to do."

She says that only because she knows why Wanda and Steve have their powers. They were both doing what they thought was best. Her circumstances aren't the same, but she still didn't ask to be like she is. They can't control what's happened to them.

Wanda seems doubtful, and Harper honestly doesn't blame her, because she's the exact same. She doesn't trust the Accords, she doesn't trust the governments of the world, but she does trust Nat. She trusts Nat and Steve and Sam and Mr Stark and Wanda and the rest of the team and their allies. She may not trust the Accords, but she trusts Nat, and she's trying to trust what she's saying.

"We're still a family, Wanda." Harper tells her certainly, looking directly at her, "Nothing's gonna change that."

"So why are you doing this?"

It's a good question, and it's one Harper would ask if she was in Wanda's position. She doesn't entirely know the answer, but she still tries to figure one out, because if Wanda needs anything right now its reassurance.

"To protect you." She says, a strained smile forming on her face, "To protect all of us."

She's compromising. That's it.


	5. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated! Stay safe guys!

"Hey, Harper. Wake up."

She jolts awake, wincing at the strained feeling she gets in her neck when she moves it. She chose possibly the least comfortable corner of the jet to go to sleep in, but in her defense she wasn't really focusing on that when she settled down to sleep. She needed the time to recharge considering the lack of sleep she got last night.

Nightmares weren't the issue - she hasn't had any for nearly a week now - rather the way her head was going at a hundred kilometers an hour was. There's always a lot going on up there and she knows that's unavoidable, but last night she couldn't stop the thoughts. Take everything that's always on her mind and factor in the whole Accords situation and Steve's state, and you've got a cesspool of thoughts that would make it impossible for anyone to get a decent nights sleep.

She could've only been asleep for a few hours when Nat wakes her, kneeling down by her side and lightly shaking her shoulder to rouse her. She groans, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, glancing around the jet with a light yawn.

"What country are we in?" She asks, looking back to Nat.

"We're not far from Vienna." Nat replies, rising from her crouched position and heading back to the front seat, "I had to make a stop in England."

"England?" Harper questions, baffled for a moment. It's when Nat settles back into the pilots seat and switches off the auto-pilot to regain control that she realizes the reason for the detour, questioning, "Why didn't you wake me?"

"I tried and you told me to go away."

Harper would argue, but that sounds about right. She heads to the front of the jet, taking a seat beside Nat and turning to face her, asking calmly, "How is he?"

"Keeping it together." Nat replies, tone strained, as she keeps her eyes fixated out the front window, "He asked me how you were."

"How I was?" Harper murmurs, perplexed. Steve's the one at a funeral and he's asking how she is? She probably shouldn't be surprised because it's Steve, but it still catches her off guard. "What'd you tell him?" She asks, curious.

"That you were sleeping." Nat says. The corner of her mouth quirks up into a smirk and she adds, "And snoring loudly, might I add."

"It's not my fault I was tired!" Harper protests defiantly, "I couldn't sleep last night."

"Nightmares?" Nat asks, smirk gone and tone concerned.

"Just had a lot on my mind." Harper admits. That's all it was. It wasn't some PTSD side effect for once - it was only overthinking.

She can tell that Nat's concerned - that she wants to ask her more - but she doesn't this time. She leaves it this time (Harper figures that she knows what she was overthinking about anyway), and instead turns to check the flight monitors.

"We'll be in Vienna in two minutes." She remarks, "You ready?"

Harper shrugs, "Not at all, but I never am, so..."

"I'm proud of you. For doing this." Nat tells her, reaching over and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and Harper just nods back, because she honestly doesn't know entirely what to say.

How is she supposed to tell her that she completely disagrees with all of this and feels sick to her stomach at the thought of it?

* * *

"Hey, Ned or May! Leave a message!"

Harper sighs shakily when the call goes straight through to voicemail. She was hoping that Peter would answer. She really needs to talk to someone right now - someone who's not caught up in this whole Accords mess. She really needs reassurance.

She thought she could handle this. She thought that she could put up a front and pretend that everything's fine, because she trusts Nat and she's choosing to trust her on this one despite the fact that she completely disagrees with it. But then they arrived at the International Centre in Vienna, surrounded by cameras and reporters and government officials, many of which likely are afraid of them to some extent, and it reaffirmed her belief that she most definitely can't put up that front, at least not for long.

That gives her two options - call for help or disguise it with humor, and it looks like she's gonna have to go for the latter.

"Hey, Pete. It's Harper. Not Ned or May." She replies, tone levelling out as she explains simply, "I might not be able to answer my phone for a while. I'm not in trouble, I swear, but there's a lot going on at the minute so I might not be able to get to my phone. If something goes horribly wrong, I installed a panic button protocol in your last suit upgrade. It should alert A.M.Y if you use it. Look after yourself, okay? I'll talk to you as soon as I can."

She pockets her phone, at least a small fraction of the unbearable weight now gone from her chest. She may not have gotten the friendly reassurance she was hoping for, but at least Peter will know how to contact her if something goes awry. That's one less thing to worry about.

"Not interrupting, am I?"

She turns around, startled by the appearance of a suited man walking out onto the balcony to join her from inside. She regains her composure and shakes her head.

"I believe we haven't met, Miss Eddins." He says politely, approaching her and extending a hand in greeting, "Prince T'Challa."

"Of Wakanda." She finishes, realizing who it is she's talking to and checking herself. She shakes his hand, responding in her most diplomatic tone, "I'm sorry about the tragedy in Lagos."

"Thank you." He responds through a strained smile. It's an awkward couple of seconds before he speaks again, "You know, Miss Eddins, I'm grateful that you're here. From what I've heard, this isn't exactly the most comfortable company for you to be in."

"You're not wrong." She admits honestly, adding with a laugh, "To be fair, it's not exactly a great pass-time for people my age, anyway."

"It doesn't get much better with age."

She quirks an eyebrow, "You don't approve of any of this either?"

"The Accords, yes. But not the politics." He responds diplomatically, "I understand that you're here with Miss Romanoff."

"Yeah. She's just inside."

"I believe she's talking with my father." T'Challa comments, gesturing to the man in question through the glass, and Harper catches sight of him speaking with Nat within the conference room, "He greatly appreciates that the two of you have chosen to attend today. It's just a shame that Captain Rogers couldn't attend as well."

"If everyone could please be seated. This assembly is now in session."

Harper's ears perk up at the sound of the announcers voice from inside. She steels her expression, turning to T'Challa as he hears the announcement too.

"Time for us to change the world." He says pridefully, gesturing towards the conference room with a smile, "Shall we?"

The two of them head back inside as everyone in attendance begins to take their seats, and Harper takes her own seat next to Nat whilst T'Challa moves towards the front of the room alongside his father. The reality of the situation settles in when a UN representative begins to head for the podium at the front of the room, and that's when her thoughts begin to spiral again.

She weighs up the logistics of the situation. She considers how things will be once the Accords are officially approved and ratified. She thinks about what will happen to those of them who choose not to sign. She wonders if Wanda will be able to stay or not, or if Vision will need to undergo special protocols given the fact that he's a piece of technology and technically not an actual person. She imagines what things would be like if Thor and Bruce were still here, and if-."

"Harper, hands!" Nat whispers, snapping Harper out of her haze when she grips onto her hands, pulling them underneath the desk in front of them and out of sight.

Harper glances down, and she can see her hands flickering even through Nat's. She hadn't realized that she was panicking until Nat realized it, and now the woman is looking at her with a mixture of warning and concern, predominantly the latter.

Harper shakes her hands free from Nat's calming grip, palms still flickering and breathing labored, and she stumbles to her feet, murmuring, "I-I just need a minute."

"Harper-." Nat tries, but Harper stumbles past her, insisting.

"Stay here."

She stumbles out of the room, heart racing and breaths shallow and loud, and she tries to ignore the eyes that follow her as she exits the room from the way she originally came in with Nat earlier.

She's grateful to find the hallway empty.

She leans back against the solid wall by the door and closes her eyes, heart still racing, and she tries to focus on anything other than what's happening. The sound of A.M.Y's robotic voice is the only thing that disturbs her.

"It appears that you are having a panic attack, Harper. Severity level - moderate."

It's only marked as moderate because she's had worse ones before. This one's bad, but it's not incapacitating like some of the others.

"Would you like me to alert someone? Captain Rogers or Agent Romanoff perhaps?"

"No!" Harper rushes out, gasping, "No! I'm fine! I just...I just need a minute!"

She gets that minute.

She keeps herself up, because she's scared that if she hits the floor she might not be able to will herself to get back up. She tries to focus on other things, gradually slowing her breathing and trying to stop the painful pounding sensation in her head. She can't tell if that's her brain or her panic - probably both.

She doesn't understand how she could've spiralled so quickly. She was complet...she was _acceptably_ fine before she suddenly fell apart. It hit her out of nowhere like a freight train.

Her chest hurts when she finally pulls herself back, but when she opens her eyes she sees that her hands are no longer flickering, giving her some sense of relief.

"A.M.Y?"

"Heart rate dropping back to a stable level, Harper."

She sighs in relief, head hitting the back of the cool wall, and she lets out a less shaky breath than before, beginning to recompose herself. She feels like she's actually beginning to regain control again when she hears a deafening boom from inside the conference room.

She stills, eyes widening in horror, and then she barrels back into the room, practically yanking the door off of its hinges when she pulls it open. She sees the flames and the smoke and the gaping hole in the windows, but she ignores all of it as she pushes her way back to where she was sat before.

She stumbles past people fleeing the scene, and she pushes herself through the crowds to try and reach Nat, speeding up when she sees her red hair among the crowd.

"Nat!" She yells, flinging herself at the older woman when she finally reaches her, gripping onto her tightly.

"It's okay! We're okay!" Nat responds, hugging her back just as tightly, and Harper tries to ignore the smoke covering her face and hair as she pulls back, looking around the chaotic room with a bewildered expression.

"What the hell happened?"

"A bomb. Came out of nowhere."

Harper looks back to Nat, considering standing her ground amongst the chaos and listening to what the Accords say, but then she sees the smoke covering her again, and she can feel the anger building up all over again.

She knows that she can't just stand around after this, regardless of what the Accords say.

"Alright, A.M.Y." She says determinedly, taping on her suit control panel to activate it. The suit begins to cover her body as she asks, "What am I looking at?"

"You brought your suit?" Nat asks, disbelieving, "Why would you bring-?!"

"Obtaining footage from the perimeter." A.M.Y's voice beeps, distracting Harper from Nat's interrogative tone, "Identifying as one James Buchanan Barnes. He's on our database. It seems that he tampered with the van that contained the bomb less than an hour ago."

"Bucky?"

Harper refuses to believe it. It can't be Bucky. He's been in hiding for over two years, and she believes Steve when he says that Bucky's still there, not what HYDRA tried to make him into.

"Is he a target?"

"No!" Harper responds rapidly, snapping out of her haze again to dismiss the A.I, "No. I've got this one."

"Harper?" Nat questions, tone cautious, but the young girl ignores her, pushing pass the crowds and heading for the shattered windows at a pace.

She knows what she has to do. If she doesn't get to Bucky before the authorities, more people could end up getting hurt, Bucky being one of them. Steve's already lost enough - he can't lose Bucky too.

"Harper, do not leave this building!"

She stops by the windows, turning back to Nat to see the woman's panicked face. She was expecting to see anger or frustration, but she sees neither. Nat just looks scared, and that terrifies her.

"Help!"

She abandons her plan when she sees a woman trapped beneath some of the wreckage of the explosion, realizing that if she leaves she's turning away from people she can help. That, combined with the desperation Nat's face, is what makes her back down, and she pushes her way through the crowds to help as many people as she can.


	6. 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating two days in a row? I've got too much time on my hands XD!
> 
> All comments and kudos are appreciated guys! Hope you all enjoy! Stay safe! :)

It's about two hours after the bombing in Vienna. The attack resulted in 12 deaths, one of them being King T'Chaka. The fallout was massive, and all of it seemed to pass in a haze for Harper. She helped where she could before the authorities arrived and told her that she couldn't, and then her and Nat were ushered out of the building along with the rest of the survivors. They had insisted upon running medical checks on the both of them, but Harper told them that she had no injuries and Nat insisted that she was fine too. Harper took her pain when she caught her wincing.

They spoke with T'Challa, though Harper wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying because she was too fixated on Bucky, and she so desperately wanted to go after him, but then she would look at Nat and the desperation would go. She wants to find him because she knows that if they do, there's a high probability they'll kill him, but she can't and she hates it.

Her and Nat are in the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre in Berlin, the attendance having been requested directly by the CIA soon after the bombing. They're in a small glass conference room in the facility. It's stylishly furnished and formal, but the seats are comfortable enough and it keeps out the noise from outside. They caught a glance of Tony when they arrived, but he was on the phone so neither of them interrupted him.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Harper turns away from the spot on the wall that she's been fixating on to look at Nat. The woman's sat in the black leather seat opposite her, expression calm, and Harper knows what she's talking about instantly. She's honestly surprised that Nat didn't ask her about it on the jet ride over.

She shrugs, leaning back in her chair in an attempt to get comfortable, "My thoughts just started spiralling. A.M.Y said it was only moderate."

"What were you thinking about?" Nat asks.

"All of this. How the Accords are gonna screw everything up." Harper remarks. Nat looks at her understandingly, and she stills for a moment as she considers how to respond.

"Do you remember that press conference you did after Sokovia? The one that Steve was completely against but you did anyway?" Nat asks, and Harper nods, because of course she remembers that day. She remembers it like it was yesterday.

"The day they named an ice cream flavor after me." Harper replies, and Nat smiles and nods.

"And do you also remember how I said you were giving people reassurance by doing it? That's what the Accords are supposed to do." She explains, "It's gonna help us win their trust back."

Harper sighs. She sits forward in her chair, asking, "Do you honestly believe that?"

She knows that Nat has a point, or at least she's trying to have one, and she wants to believe in it, she really does, but she can't do that when she's not even sure if Nat believes in it.

Nat leans forward in her seat, clasping her hands together as her expression turns to one of deep thought, and then she finally admits, "I'm trying to."

That's all any of them are doing - they're trying to adjust to things as they rapidly change before them. It's a lot easier said than done, Harper's found.

"I should've gone after Bucky."

Nat shakes her head, "It would've only made things worse."

"If I went after him, maybe Steve wouldn't of had to." Harper reasons. They found out that him and Sam were pursuing Bucky when they arrived. Harper didn't catch most of the details, but it seems that the CIA sent a team of their own out there to try and apprehend them. She wanted to do something, but then she remembered that there's literally nothing she can do to help and that all she can do is stand back and keep things from getting worse.

"And then you'd be the one putting yourself in danger." Nat counters warningly, "The rules are different now. They can arrest us if we get involved. I told Steve the same thing."

"Didn't stop him from trying." Harper replies, shrugging, and then she adds adamantly, "I don't think it was Bucky, you know?"

Nat's expression is strained, and she shakes her head, disbelieving, "Harper, you saw the footage."

"I know. And I know that it suggests that it physically was him, but that doesn't mean that it was him." She explains; noticing the quizzical expression on the older woman's face, she elaborates, "HYDRA got into his head too. They could be behind this."

She keeps getting drawn back to that thought. It's plausible - what happened in D.C. was because of HYDRA's manipulations, so it's not completely out of the question. Nat seems to think the opposite.

"He's been missing for two years. Completely untraceable." Nat insists, shaking her head, "They wouldn't have found him."

The glass door swings open then and Tony walks in, phone in hand, and both pairs of eyes in the room look over at him expectantly.

"They got them. Barnes too." He says, "They're bringing them in now. Rhodey's supervising cleanup."

"Cleanup?" Harper questions, eyebrow quirked, and Tony nods.

"They caused quite the mess in Romania. I've been on the phone the last hour trying to get them out of being placed in a cell." He explains, "Ross wants them both prosecuted."

"And we actually have to listen to that dickwad?"

"Given that he's the Secretary of State, yes." Tony counters, looking at her pointedly, "He's on his way here, so try and stop the name calling before he arrives. He's not exactly a fan of The Avengers right now, and as amusing as it would be, I wouldn't recommending pissing him off."

His phone rings again, the shrill noise startling Harper, and he picks it up immediately, leaving the room to continue the call. Harper relaxes back into her seat and Nat glances over at her, giving her the same pointed look that Tony did before.

"I know he's got a point, but that doesn't change what I said." Harper counters, shrugging, "Ross is a dickwad."

Nat sighs. She rises out of her chair, walking towards the door and glancing back at the younger girl, "Stay here, okay?"

"Okay." Harper says, nodding. It's not like she can go anywhere anyway - at least not without causing some form of trouble.

She reaches into her pocket once Nat's gone, pulling her phone out for the first time since she tried to call Peter back in Vienna, and she scrolls through her contacts to find Wanda's number among them, placing a call through to the number.

It rings several times, and all she gets back is the robotic voice of the other girls answering machine. She doesn't bother leaving a message; she knows that Wanda never checks for them anyway. She pockets her phone again, relaxing into her chair as she waits alone in the room, and a fair few minutes before she hears the door open again. She expects it to be Nat, but she's surprised when she sees who it is instead.

"Mr Stark?"

He steps into the room, closing the door behind him, as he moves to take a seat opposite her. "Romanoff doesn't like the idea of you being alone in this place, and I don't think she wants one of those guys watching over you." He says, nodding to one of the armed guards walking around outside the confines of the glass room, and Harper scoffs.

"Nat worries too much."

"You give her enough reason to." He counters, "You have a particular skill for getting yourself involved in dangerous situations."

"You know, for a second there, I thought you might actually be complementing me." She remarks, and he smirks. Classic Mr Stark. "I don't try to worry her, you know?"

"Of course not." Tony remarks, "You just try and chase after terrorists for the fun of it, right?"

There's no malice to his voice. None at all. But she can tell that he knows the answer already. He's only asking to try and prove a point like always. It's his backwards way of showing that he cares.

"I didn't tr-." She begins, and then he quirks an eyebrow at her and she falters, "I stopped, okay?"

"Well, obviously." He replies, shrugging, "If you hadn't, you'd be in a cell right now. I mean, I would've gotten you out of it by now, but you would've been in a cell at one point or another."

"You would've got me out?" She asks, almost surprised. Maybe she shouldn't be, because she knows that Mr Stark cares, and even if the team is in conflict over their views and perspectives right now, they're all still trying to look out for each other.

He shrugs, "Yeah, well, Romanoff would shoot me if I let you rot in one of those cells, so..."

She laughs, going to make another remark, when the shrill noise of his phone goes off again, and he rushes to answer it, "Yeah?"

She listens as he talks to whoever it is on the other side, and she knows that she could tune into the voice coming from the device and hear what's going on, but she feels like it would be an invasion of his privacy as she doesn't exactly want to do that.

So, instead she waits, and when the call finally finishes he rises from the chair, turning back to her, "Your next babysitter's on his way."

"My next-?" She questions, perplexed as he heads towards the door, "Mr Stark, I-."

"Glad you're okay, kid! Try not to get yourself killed again!"

She considers going after him, but she figures that she'll only end up being placed back in the room again. Besides, she told Nat that she'd stay in the room.

She's sat alone for no more than five minutes before she hears the door open again. She expects it to be Nat, or maybe even Mr Stark again, so she's surprised when she finds that it's neither of them.

"Sam?"

He smiles, hugging her back when she rises from her seat and rushes over to wrap her arms around him tightly, "Hey, kid."

"You okay?" She asks, pulling back, and he shrugs.

"I lost the wings."

She had expected that they'd be confiscated after everything. It's a compromise - the middle ground between being thrown into a cell and let off scot-free. It sucks, but it's probably the best outcome for the situation.

"You guys found Bucky, didn't you?" She asks, almost rhetorically given the fact that she already knows the answer, as she moves back over to her suit.

"He tried to take off right after we caught him." He replies, slumping into the seat opposite her, "And then some dude dressed up like a cat got involved in the chase."

"A cat? Who-?" She murmurs, perplexed, and then she catches a glimpse of another person walking into the outer offices through the glass, and her mind quickly puts two and two together, "Prince T'Challa?"

He walks through the facility, hostility and reserved anger clear in his posture, as a suited agent directs him to an office among the facility, which he goes into without question.

"He's a prince?"

"Probably a King now. His Dad was killed during the bombing." She replies, turning back to Sam as T'Challa disappears from view, asking simply, "Where's Bucky?"

"They've locked him up somewhere in here. They're gonna do a psychological evaluation, which isn't gonna go well considering he's about as stable as an IED."

He has a reason for his instability, but there's no denying that Sam's right about that. Regardless of whether he's innocent or not, a psychological evaluation isn't gonna help swing things in his favor in the slightest. It'll only cast more doubt on him than there already is.

"How's Steve?"

Sam shrugs, "How you'd expect."

She expects him to be coping but not happy with any of this in the slightest. If how Sam is is anything to go by, then her expectations are accurate.

"This is all so fucked." She admits, scoffing, and Sam shoots her a sharp look.

"Hey!"

"You're harping on me for my language now? Seriously?" She questions, unable to stop the grin that comes to her face when she sees his expression, and even he smiles despite himself.

"Someone's got to do it." He jokes, shrugging. He sobers up, tone becoming more serious and expression matching it, and he asks, "Did you sign them?"

"Technically not." She replies, adding when he seems confused, "Since the ratification wasn't finished, I didn't get the chance to. I was putting it off until the last second because I didn't want to do it. I still don't."

She's never been on the side of the Accords. She thinks they're discriminatory and crazy and have only caused more harm than good, but she also knows that saying any of that aloud won't change anything.

She can't change any of it. None of them can. They can only sit by and watch as everything, even their own family, fractures and falls to pieces right in front of them.

She's pacing around the room later on, Sam having gone but Steve soon filling the void that he left behind. She hugged him tightly as soon as she saw him. She asked him how he was and avoided questions about Bucky or the funeral among other things that she knew he wouldn't want to talk about, and she could tell that he appreciated her attempt.

He's been quiet, sat in the chair that Sam was in before him, as she's been pacing back and forth across the glass room, playing around absentmindedly with the frequently used phone in her jittering hands.

"I'm worried about Wanda. She's still not answering her phone." She says.

She's called her several times, only to get sent through to voicemail each time, and each successive time has only added to her worry. She would've thought that after what happened in both Vienna and Romania, Wanda would be the one calling them, not the other way around. With everything falling apart, she needs the reassurance that at least some people she cares about are okay. She sorted out the Peter situation to some extent, but the Wanda situation is harder to handle.

"Tony's keeping her at the facility."

Harper stills, turning to Steve with wide eyes, "He's what?"

"He doesn't want another incident like in Lagos." Steve explains, tone begrudging, and Harper can tell that he doesn't agree with the decision in the slightest. "He says that Vision's keeping her company. That's probably why she's not answering." He adds.

"But that wasn't Wanda's fault!" She insists, and Steve nods in understanding. She sighs, concluding, "I could teleport her out. Get her away."

"And then what?"

She sighs again, slumping down into a chair defeatedly, because she knows that if there was a chance that her farfetched idea would be successful, Steve would've backed it instead of questioning it.

"I wanted to go after Bucky. Get to him before they did." She admits.

"I know. Nat told me." Steve replies, a small smile on his face, but then it goes and he shakes his head dismissively, "That wasn't Bucky, anyway."

"You think it's HYDRA too?" She asks, leaning forward in her chair as his words catch her out. Maybe someone believes in the same theory that she does.

"HYDRA?"

"They messed with his mind, didn't they? Did the same thing that they did to me?" She explains, "I never believed that it was actually him. Even when I saw the footage. I figured it had to be the monster that HYDRA made of him instead."

"If it actually was Bucky in Vienna, that'd be an optimistic perspective." Steve admits, sighing, and Harper furrows her brow in confusion. She thought that he believed in the same theory as her, but maybe not. "He was in Romania when the bombing happened." He explains, only confusing Harper even more.

"How is that possible?"

"My guess is that someone framed him."

"Why don't you tell that to Ross and the other guys in this place?" She asks, leaning so far forward that she's practically out of her seat, "We...we could help clear his name. Find a way to prove that it's not him."

"They wouldn't believe me." Steve says, "They've got someone to blame. That's what they wanted the second the bombs went off."

She sits back, knowing that he's right. That's what the Accords are effectively finding - someone to be held accountable when things go wrong. That's all these kind of people want.

"For what it's worth - I still believe Bucky's good." She says after a moment of silence, and Steve glances over at her in surprise, "I know I don't know him, but you still believe he is, and I believe you over almost everyone else in this building. I'm only going along with all of this for Nat."

"I know."

She appreciates that Steve understands. She doesn't want to go along with any of this - not really. She's compromising, and Steve understands that.

"I'm gonna go find her." She says, rising from her chair and heading for the door.

"Harper?"

She stills, turning back to Steve as he too rises from his seat, and he catches her off guard when he walks over to her and hugs her tightly. She hugs him back after a moment, trying to ignore the unexplainable sinking feeling in her chest as they grip onto each other.


	7. 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated! Stay safe guys!

She managed to find Nat soon after she set out looking for her, finding the woman and Tony sat in a surveillance room among multiple CIA operatives. She chose to take a seat next to Nat, and she's been trying to ignore the looks she's been getting from the other people in the room for the last twenty minutes. She feels unwelcome in the room, and from the way that they're looking at her, it's as if they expect her to snap and start attacking them.

It's fear, and she's trying to adjust to the idea that people are afraid of her.

She sits there, waiting for Bucky's evaluation to begin, which she already knows will only end up making things worse for him. It's not his fault, but he is psychologically unstable after everything that went down with HYDRA. Of course she doesn't know the details, but if it's anything like what she went through, especially over a longer period of time, then it makes sense why he would be.

Her eyes dart over to one of the several screens in the room. She leans forward in her seat, palms clasped together, as the evaluation begins, Bucky visible in his containment pod as the back of the assessor just about distinguishable in the corner of the screen.

"I'm not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions." The assessor explains, "Do you know where you are, James?"

Radio silence. Bucky doesn't even shift in his pod. The assessor tries again.

"I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."

"My name is Bucky."

His tone is stoic, void of emotion but somewhat hoarse. His eyes are fixed on the floor instead of the assessor, though the other man seems unperturbed.

"Tell me, Bucky. You've seen a great deal, haven't you?"

Another pause, and Harper notices the way Bucky shifts ever so slightly within his restraints, emotion registering in his tone of voice, "I don't want to talk about it."

There's humanity there - something more than the Winter Soldier that HYDRA made. It only adds to Harper's discomfort for the entire situation.

 **"** You fear that if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop."

The assessor disregards Bucky's discomfort and keeps talking to him, and Harper doesn't miss the way Bucky gets more and more uncomfortable as he goes on.

And then the lights and monitors go out, plunging the room and the rest of the facility into darkness and panic. Harper looks around, bewildered, as Nat stands and moves over to where Tony is, and it already seems that the man is trying to figure out what's going on himself. The operatives are trying to get the monitors and surveillance back on, a man in a grey suit barking panicked orders at them the entire time.

She tries to stay calm amongst the chaos, keeping in her seat and observing as the adults around her rushed around, and it's during her observations that she notices Steve and Sam slip out of the adjacent room that there were in, sprinting towards the nearby staircase at a rapid pace, leaving behind the single blonde agent that was alone in the room with them.

Harper doesn't recognise her, though she feels like she should.

She slips out of the surveillance room when no one's looking at her, joining the lone agent and seemingly catching her off guard by doing so. She slams the door behind her, approaching her in the dark.

"Where are they going?" She asks determinedly, and when the blonde doesn't respond, she adds exasperatedly, "I can teleport, okay? It'll give me a head start."

She doesn't look convinced - not in the slightest; Harper looks at her pleadingly, "I don't wanna kill him. I wanna save him."

She's still not convinced, but she relents, "Sub Level 5, East Wing."

Harper nods, turning to her control panel and taping lightly, "A.M.Y?"

"Location pinpointed."

Harper smiles in relief, turning away from the computer generated map at her wrist to glance at the agent gratefully, respectfully nodding, "Thank you."

The agent nods back, and then Harper's gone before she can stop and ask for her name. She materalizes on the level in question, unsurprised to find it just as dark as the rest of the building. She notes the unconscious guards, strewn in limp heaps across the ground, looking like a bunch of rag dolls thrown to the trash.

She suspects it to have been Bucky, which both alarms and confuses her, and then she sees the door at the end of the dark hallway, and even in the dark she can see that the pod he was in has been smashed open.

"Help!" A voice cries weakly, and her eyes are drawn to a single body lying limp in the pod room, the difference being that this one seems to be conscious.

She rushes over to the body, kneeling down by its side and turning it over so the persons face can been seen; she recognized it as the assessor from his back.

"Are you alright?" She asks, scanning his face and body for any sign of injury or stress. She finds neither, and when her eyes move back up to his face, she sees that he's grinning.

His expression is sardonic, and so is his laugh to match it. He sits up, still grinning, as he practically hisses, "The Avengers. So brave yet so, so foolish."

She feels the cool metal against her neck first, and then she's being yanked to her feet and launched towards the wall, crashing into it with such strength that it flakes and crumbles from the force of her body. She catches herself, eyes landing on Bucky as he advances towards her, murder glistening in his dark eyes.

He swings for her head, his metal fist striking the wall instead of its target when she nimbly moves out of the way, and she strikes him back strongly, knocking him back into the damaged wall of his former cell.

She pushes off from the wall, hands glowing in the dark, and Bucky stands too, glaring at her with enough ferocity that would terrify even the bravest of warriors and soldiers.

She's neither, but she stands her ground.

"You're gonna have to do better than that." She warns, anticipating his next attack and teleporting behind him, kicking him down when he clumsily swings for the space she was once in.

He hits the stone ground, flipping back onto his feet within an instant, shrugging off the strike as if it were nothing. He lunges for her again, this time using his non metal fist, and she catches it, gripping onto it with immense strength and stalling him where he is.

"I know you're still in there, Bucky!" She grunts, struggling against his resistive strength, "I know that you know what I'm saying!"

She fights his struggle, keeping her eyes fixed on his face for any form of recognition. She doesn't know if it's recognition, but something shifts in his expression, and he turns his head to look her in the eye. The glint that was there before is gone, but then it returns as soon as it leaves. He swings his metal fist at her suddenly, striking her into the gut and sending her flying across the room back into the wall, though this time her head strikes back against it first.

The next thing she reacts to is the feeling of someone shaking her awake, and when she opens her eyes she finds Sam leaning over her, face bashed but concerned, "Come on, kid. Get up."

She groans, laughing dryly, "Took you long enough."

He sighs in relief, sitting back to give her the space to move, and it's then that he notices a figure down the hall, calling out to him in the dark. He turns around, and Harper recognizes him as the man that was on the floor, and then he's gone, and Harper notices the urgency on Sam's face.

"Go get him. I'll catch up." She says, wincing as she attempts to sit up. Sam looks conflicted, glancing between her and the empty hallway. "Go before he gets away!" She insists, and he nods, standing and rushing off after the mystery man and leaving her alone in the dark room.

She taps her suit on, still sat on the ground, and she groans in pain, "A.M.Y?"

"No fractures or contusions detected."

Her pain suggests otherwise, but she chooses to believe A.M.Y's scan over her own assumption. She pushes herself to her feet with a wince, "Feels like there should be."

"Multiple heat signatures detected in the main lobby." The A.I says, answering the girls next question before she even gets the chance to ask it.

She doesn't know how long she was out for - presumably not too long - but she knows that Bucky's fast, so it's plausible that he could've gotten to the main lobby already. She chooses to make that assumption and run with it.

She teleports up to the main lobby, materalizing in the much lighter setting just as Bucky slams Nat down onto a wooden table, the woman seemingly having tried to put up a fight against him. He overpowers her with ease, and Harper watches in horror as his metal hand latches onto her neck, squeezing so tightly that her face goes bright red.

"No!" Harper screams. She blasts him, making him lose his grip on the woman as he goes flying into some other tables nearby. She rushes over to Nat, who's reaching for her neck and gasping for air, and looks down at her with concern. "You okay?" She asks.

She's knocked off her feet before Nat can try and answer. She steadies herself, glancing up as Bucky lunges at her angrily and murderously, metal fist first. She dodges by teleporting behind him again, kicking him whilst he's distracted and readying herself for when he inevitably strikes again.

The two of them fight, each of them countering the others strikes by either dodging or countering with equally as powerful strikes. Harper quickly recognizes his fighting style because it's the exact same one that HYDRA tried to teach her to use. It's ruthless and unforgiving and goddamn exhausting super-powered or not.

"Bucky! Stop it!" She yells, having successfully knocked him to the ground - payback for him doing the same to her. "You don't want to do this! This isn't you!"

She's hoping that he'll stop like he did before. That he might realize that what she's saying is the truth. She soon realizes that's wishful thinking, and she should've known because she couldn't break out of it when she was under the trance.

He runs at her again, attacking more vigorously than before, and his attacks are relentless. She deflects and dodges as many as she can despite her growing exhaustion and pain from before, but he gets the upper hand on her, and his metal fist hits the side of her head with intense force.

She doesn't even feel herself go flying into the air before she's out of it.

* * *

She wakes up for the second time in the facility, though this time she's not in the dark and she's on a couch as opposed to the ground. She figures all of that out before she even opens her eyes, and when she does open them, she winces at the light and shifts uncomfortably in her position.

"You're okay."

She feels a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and she shifts her head to see Nat sat by her side, kind smile on her reassuring face.

"Nat?" Harper murmurs, easing herself into a sitting position as she looks around the room. They're alone, though she can see people moving around outside of the room. "Where's Bucky?" She asks, turning back to the woman, and Nat sighs.

"He's gone. Steve and Sam too."

"What happened?" Harper questions, sitting up fully and turning towards Nat, tone and expression serious.

"After he took you down, T'Challa tried to get him, but he got away before he could." Nat explains, "It's being assumed that Steve and Sam are with him."

Of course they're with him. Steve would follow Bucky to the end of the world, and Sam would do the same for Steve. Where they all are is the mystery here.

"I almost had him." Harper grumbles. She moves her hand across her tired face before settling them in her lap, asking, "How long was I out for?"

"About an hour." Nat replies. She looks at the girl, lips pursed, "How do you feel?"

"Healing's dealt with it all." Harper responds, shrugging. She feels completely fine. Somewhat groggy, but she's physically fine. "Where's Mr Stark?" She asks.

"With Secretary Ross."

"General Dickwad's here?" Harper groans exasperatedly, "And I thought today was already shit enough."

"If you're gonna act like that you can wait in here." Nat tells her, tone scolding, and Harper sighs.

"I promise I won't call the dickwad a dickwad to his face." She reasons, shrugging when Nat quirks an eyebrow, "Compromise."

Nat settles for it surprisingly. The two of them head out of the small room soon after, and Harper follows Nat down the hall to another similarly furnished room, where the two of them find Tony talking to a rather perturbed Secretary Ross.

The former General notices their arrival, admittedly rather rudely, and Harper has to bite her tongue as she takes a seat at the side of the room. Steve, Sam and Bucky soon become the topic of conversation, and Ross isn't exactly pleased with how things panned out.

"I don't suppose you have any idea where they are?" He questions, eyes narrowing in on Tony in particular, who responds cooly and within reason.

"We will. GSG-9's got the borders covered. Recon's flying 24/7. They'll get a hit. We'll handle it."

"You don't get it, Stark. It's not yours to handle." Ross counters coldly, completely disregarding Tony's proposed solutions, "It's clear you can't be objective. I'm putting Special Ops on this."

"What happens when the shooting starts? What, do you kill Steve Rogers?" Nat asks, panic crossing her face at the suggestion whilst Ross seems unfazed.

"If we're provoked." He responds, and Harper can't stop the laugh that escapes her lips. He turns to her, expression stern, "Is something funny?"

Nat and Tony's eyes are on her too, but she ignores them as she looks back at Ross.

"Kinda, yeah." She replies with a scoff, "I mean, you're acting like your ass wouldn't be six feet under if it wasn't for Steve Rogers. And Sam, for that matter."

She feels like Ross has got a lot of nerve talking about Steve and Sam the way he is. She doesn't want to sound arrogant, but The Avengers have saved a lot of peoples lives, Ross likely among them. You'd think that the secretary would be a bit more appreciative of that fact.

"Why don't you show some respect, okay, kid?"

"Why don't you?" She counters, standing her ground, and Ross looks frustrated by her defiance.

"We will shoot if we're provoked." He insists, standing with his arms crossed, perhaps trying to appear intimidating.

It doesn't work in the slightest.

"So will I, and I don't need a gun to do that." Harper says, rising out of her seat to stand opposite him, and she mimics the secretary by crossing her arms herself, "You wanna shoot Steve Rogers? Fine, but that bullet has to go through me first."

She can see in his face that he's frustrated by her defiance. He stares intensely at her, lips pursed and vein at the side of his head beginning to pop angrily, but he ultimately takes a deep breath and turns away from her, perhaps knowing that threatening her isn't gonna get him anywhere.

Harper glances at Nat when he turns away from her, relaxing her posture and exhaling, and the older woman gives her a look that's a mixture of scolding and understanding. She figures that it's better than being in trouble.

"Barnes would've been eliminated in Romania if it wasn't for Rogers. There are dead people who would be alive now. Feel free to check my math." Ross says, tone cold and stern.

"All due respect, you're not going to solve this with boys and bullets, Ross." Tony counters, "You gotta let us bring them in."

"How would that end any differently from the last time?"

"Because this time, I won't be wearing loafers and a silk shirt." Tony replies, and Harper knows what he means when he says that. He shrugs, saying adamantly, "72 hours, guaranteed."

Ross doesn't seem convinced, but then again she hadn't expected him to be. He stands over Tony, instructing him simply.

"36 hours. Barnes. Rogers." He tells him, making his way towards the door, and Harper sees the way Tony's face relaxes when Ross' back is to him. "Wilson!" He adds before the door closes behind him, and Harper finds herself glaring at his back as he walks away.

God, she hates that guy.

"Thank you, sir." Tony murmurs back, dejected. He slumps down into his chair, rubbing his left shoulder with a wince. "My left arm is numb, is that normal?" He ask, glancing over at Nat.

Harper rises out of her chair and walks over to him. She places a hand on his wounded shoulder, and she closes her eyes and groans quietly as she feels the dull pain pass into her own body. She opens her eyes and looks down at Tony. "Better?" She asks.

He nods, expression grateful and more at ease, and she nods back and takes a few steps back as Nat walks over and sits opposite Tony, sighing.

"We're seriously understaffed." She admits.

Harper has to agree with that. With Steve and Sam gone and Wanda still at the facility, that makes it only the three of them left, and even if Wanda was with them she doubts that she'd be behind any of this. Harper's barely behind any of it herself.

"Oh, yeah. It'd be great if we had a Hulk right about now." Tony remarks, glancing at Nat with a slight smirk, "Any shot?"

Nat smiles back slightly, shaking her head dismissively, "No." She says, adding, "You really think he'd be on our side?"

He sighs, "No."

"Neither would Thor." Harper murmurs. She's certain that the Asgardian would be against the Accords. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing he'd agree with.

"You see what this is, kid?" Tony questions, gesturing between him and Nat, "This is grown up talk, which means you don't get involved."

"You're not back on this, are you?" She groans exasperatedly. She thought that they were past this stage.

"Yes, I am, actually. Now zip it. The grown ups are talking." He says, and she deadpans him. He ignores her, turning back to Nat as she says.

"I have an idea."

"Me, too." Tony replies, quirking an eyebrow at her, "Where's yours?"

"Downstairs." She responds, expression puzzled as she asks, "Where's yours?"

A smirk forms on his bruised face, only adding to the confusion on Nat's face. He rises from his seat, turning towards Harper. "Kid, you're with me." He declares.

"I am?" Harper questions, standing there confused as Tony heads for the door, and when she doesn't follow he turns back to her with an expectant look.

"What are you waiting for? Need Natasha to pack you a lunch bag or something?"

"She'll be out in a minute." Nat tells him, jumping in and responding before the younger girl can, and Tony listens and goes to wait just outside the room.

"You gonna be okay?" Harper asks, turning to Nat when the door closes behind him.

"You're asking me?" Nat replies playfully, and Harper shrugs her off. "Something happens, you call me, okay?" Nat tells her, reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll be alright, Nat."

"Promise me." Nat insists, grip tightening slightly on the girls jacket, and Harper knows that the woman's looking for reassurance just as much as she is.

"I promise."

Nat nods, serious expression falling from her face, and she catches Harper off guard when she pulls her into a tight hug. "I love you." She murmurs as Harper hugs her back.

"Oh, god! We're gonna die!" Harper gasps in mock surprise, jumping back, "You would not be saying that if you thought we'd be getting out of this alive!"

"We're not gonna die, Harper." Nat says, looking at the girl incredulously.

"We're gonna die!" Harper cries jokingly, and Nat deadpans her. She laughs, "I'm kidding! I'm kidding! I know we're gonna be fine."

"Let's go, flashlight!" Tony calls, knocking on the glass, "Clock's ticking!"

Harper looks over at him and nods before looking back to Nat, who nods back towards the door, "You should go."

Harper nods, hugging the woman again quickly. She lets go and heads for the door. "Don't miss me too much, Nat! I know things can get boring without me around!" She jokes.

"You mean less stressful?" Nat teases back, and Harper turns to her as she opens the door with a mock hurt expression.

"That one stings, Nat!" She jokes, "I'll try not to cause too much trouble."


	8. 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated! Stay safe guys!

The jet rumbles as it takes off from the runway, and Harper watches through the window as the buildings get smaller and the clouds get closer. She relaxes back into her seat with a sigh, watching the blue skies contently as they begin to pass up into the clouds.

Her and Tony headed straight to the airport from the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. She tried to get so information out of him on the drive over to the airport, but he didn't exactly give away much. Even when he informed her that they'd be boarding the jet, he still wouldn't tell her anything, and even now she doesn't know where they're going and why they're travelling there.

"You know, Mr Stark, I could just teleport us where we need to go." She remarks, turning away from the window to look at the man opposite, who seems content in his luxurious plane seat, "I mean, you'd actually need to tell me where it is that we're going, but-."

"Relax, kid. Take a couple of hours." He dismisses, waving her off.

Harper leans forward in her seat, tone insistent, shaking her head, "You've got to tell me what's going on, Mr Stark. I'm sick of being kept out of the loop."

She feels like she hasn't known what's been going on in days. Even after reading The Accords, they still felt like a mystery to her. She wasn't in the room when the bombing happened, and she still doesn't understand what was going on with the assessor back at the facility. That, among other reasons, is why she didn't mention him to anyone else. She figured that Ross wouldn't believe her, and even if he did she knows that the man, whoever he was, would've been long gone by that point.

She doesn't know what's going on, at least not fully. She's sick of having to piece things together.

She watches, patiently, as Tony reaches into his pocket, placing a small device down on the surface between them. He taps the device on, and footage of a certain familiar web-slinger appears on the screen.

It's difficult to see due to the video quality, but she can tell that it's Peter, and from the looks of things, he's stopping a speeding car from crashing into a bus. It's quite the impressive feat.

"You know who this is, don't you?" Tony questions, and Harper tears her eyes away from the footage, shaking her head profusely.

"No." She says, hastily, "No, of course not."

"Yeah, that question was one of the rhetorical variety."

He taps on the device again, switching from video footage to an audio recording. It sounds choppy at first, but then Harper recognizes the voice on the recording because it's hers. She sounds panicked and rushed, and it's not long before she realizes where it's from, too.

_"The police are coming. You need to get out of here."_

_"I'm not just gonna leave you here."_

_"If you want to keep being the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, you're gonna have to."_

"How'd you get that?" Harper asks accusingly, glancing back at Tony when the recording finishes. It's from the Manhattan Bridge incident.

"Your comms link wasn't as private as you thought." He replies, tone surprisingly lacking any form of smugness. He taps on the device again, pulling up a new footage in an even lower quality than the previous batch. Even in its grainy and distant quality, you can still see her and Peter, sat on the ground along with their blueprints and ice cream. "Don't worry. All other surveillance cameras a mile around were wiped. No one flagged it up." He adds, noticing her panicked expression, as he takes the device and puts it back into his pocket.

She sighs defeatedly, slumping back into her seat. She thought that she did everything right to protect Peter's identity. She thought that she wasn't putting him at risk, but clearly she was wrong. Even if Tony's covered all of their tracks, what if he wasn't around to do that? How would've things panned out.

"Why ask me if you already knew the answer?" She asks, confused, and he shrugs.

"I wanted to see if you'd be honest."

"I promised that I'd help him protect his identity. He's got people that he cares about that would be in danger if people knew who he was." She explains, trying to justify why she wasn't so honest, and he seems to accept it. She sighs again, realizing why they're even talking about Peter. "I'm not even gonna try and talk you out of this, cause I know that you're not gonna listen." She admits honestly.

He wants to recruit Peter for his side. It makes sense given his strength and abilities, but it doesn't make her any more warm to the idea.

"Nice to see you're using your brain again."

She shoots a look in his direction. He seems unperturbed by it. Sighing, she says, "If he gets involved in this, he's gonna be in danger."

"What are you saying?" He asks.

"When the inevitable fallout of all of this hits, keep him out of it." She says, and he quirks an eyebrow at her. She sighs, tone shifting to one of sincerity as she looks at him directly, "Please."

His expression shifts as he seems to hear what she's saying. She doesn't know if it's her sincerity or the pleading nature in her voice, but he listens. He nods, responding honestly, "I'll do everything I can, kid."

She doesn't bother checking his heart beat because she can tell that he's being honest, and she appreciates that more than he realises.

* * *

The door swings open only a few seconds after Tony knocks, a dishevelled looking woman in glasses answering the door. Tony smiles politely when she appears, "Miss Parker."

"Oh, hello." She replies, eyes drifting between the two visitors at the door confusedly, and from a quick glance Harper can see just how much Peter resembles his aunt.

"Tony." He says, extending a hand out to the woman, who shakes it in a stunned manner.

"I-I've heard." She stutters.

"And this is Harper."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Harper says, extending her own hand out to the woman as she turns to her. She takes her hand and shakes it politely, "We're here to talk to Peter Parker."

"Peter?"

"He applied for a grant as a part of the Stark September Foundation. I'm here to discuss the project with him given that his application was successful." Tony explains, cooly taking control of the situation.

"Wow! Okay." She responds, glancing back into the apartment before looking back to them, "Well, he's not back from school yet, but you're both more than welcome to come in."

The two of them gratefully accept her offer, following her into the small apartment. Harper notices that it's virtually unchanged from the last time she was there, though she keeps that detail to herself as May heads into the kitchen.

"Can I offer either of you anything?" She asks politely, "I made a walnut date loaf just this morning."

"You know what? That sounds perfect." Tony replies, adding, "I'm sure that Harper would love some too."

The woman smiles and nods, turning away from them to search through the cupboards for some plates to serve the food on. Harper turns to Tony whilst her back's turned, exclaiming in a hushed tone, "I'm allergic to walnuts!"

He looks at incredulously, "How can you be allergic to anything?"

"I don't know. Maybe the scientists goofed up somewhere down the line." She replies, shrugging, "The last time I had walnuts, my throat got so swollen that I almost choked. Nat was ready to kill Sam for giving me them."

She remembers the day vividly. In Sam's defense, he couldn't have known she was allergic. She didn't even know that she was. Nat and Steve went into full on panic mode when it happened, and right after the two of them chucked out any food they had that had even a trace of walnuts.

Tony sighs, speaking hastily as May walks back over to them, walnut loaf on three separate plates, "Just take it and smile, kid."

Harper wants to argue, but then May reaches them, and it's hard to say 'no' when the kindly woman extends the first plate out to her with a warm smile. "Thank you, Miss Parker." She says, accepting the plate from the woman and taking a seat on the couch.

"It's my pleasure. And please, call me May." She replies as her and Tony join her on the couch, each of them with a plate of their own. She looks at the two of them, tone intrigued and curious. "So, what is this foundation that my nephews applied for?" She asks, taking a bite into her slice of the loaf.

"Mr Parker is your nephew?" Tony asks, feigning surprise and grinning charismatically, "I thought he was your brother!"

May visibly swoons at his comment, and Harper gives him a look that translates to 'seriously'. He shrugs her off, turning to May with another smile as the door opens, a familiar voice speaking up on their way to the kitchen.

"Hey, May."

"Hey." May responds, grinning at the fact that Peter seemingly hasn't noticed the visitors, "How was school today?"

"Okay. This crazy car's parked outside..."

Harper glances over at Peter as he walks out of the kitchen, stopping in the middle of the room when he sees her and Tony. His hands come up to his ears, taking out his earphones and dropping them from his hands as he looks between her and Tony, mouth agape.

"Oh, Mr. Parker." Tony says, walnut loaf in hand, as he turns towards him casually.

"What-what are you doing?" Peter questions, fumbling over his words as he glances rapidly between Tony and Harper. She looks at him cautiously, silently willing him to play it cool. "Hey! Uh, I'm-Im-I'm Peter." He fumbles.

He's doing quite badly at it so far.

"Tony." He responds cooly, gesturing to Harper, "And this is Harper."

"Nice to meet you." She says with a small wave, giving Peter a small, reassuring smile, and he notices and gives her a slight smile back before looking back to Tony.

"What are you doing here?"

"It's about time we met." Tony says, "You've been getting my e-mails, right?"

Peter glances at her again and she nods.

"Yeah. Yeah." Peter lies, looking back to Tony, "Regarding the..."

"You didn't tell me about the grant." May says, thankfully filling in the blanks, and Peter runs with what she's saying.

"About the grant."

"The September Foundation. Remember when you applied?" Tony says, and Peter nods and murmurs in agreement. He gestures to Harper again, "Harper here is a huge advocate for the foundation."

"Huge advocate. I'm really passionate about the project." Harper lies, eyes darting between Peter and May, and thankfully the latter seems to be buying it.

"I approved your application, so now we're in business." Tony says.

"You didn't tell me anything." May says, looking at Peter accusingly, and the boy shrinks under her gaze, "What's up with that? You keeping secrets from me now?"

"Why, I just, I just...I just know how much you love surprises, so I thought I would let you know..." He fumbles, rambling on as he nervously brandishes his hands around, eventually regaining his composure and looking back to Tony, "Anyway, what did I apply for?"

"That's what we're here to hash out."

Harper nods, adding, "More hash than a hash brown."

Everyone's eyes land on her, even Peter looking baffled by her statement, and she shrinks into her seat and looks down at her hands awkwardly as Tony carries the conversation again.

"Anyways..." He says. He points to May with a grin, "It's so hard for me to believe that she's someone's aunt."

"Yeah, well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know?" May quips, and Tony responds cooly.

"This walnut date loaf is exceptional." Tony remarks, gesturing to the loaf in his hand.

"Let me just stop you there." Peter interjects, glancing between Tony and his aunt with a slightly disturbed expression, "Has this grant, like, got money involved or whatever? No?"

"Yeah. It's pretty well funded. Look who you're talking to." Tony remarks, shrugging. He turns to May, gesturing to Peter with a charming smile, "Can we have 5 minutes with him? Harper would love to discuss some projects with him."

May agrees without hesitation, and Tony thanks her before following Peter into his room. Harper trails behind the two of them, walking into the room and closing the door behind them before turning to Tony, who looks at her with a disbelieving expression.

"More hash than a hash brown?" He questions, "Seriously?"

Harper shrugs, "It sounded better in my head!"

He rolls his eyes and sighs, moving past it as he walks further into Peter's small room. He moves over to his desk, looking through some of the old tech splayed across it with a curious expression, "Whoa, what have we here? Retro tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?"

"Uh, the garbage, actually." Peter murmurs.

"You're a dumpster diver?"

"Pete, seriously?" Harper questions, looking over at him incredulously, and he shrinks back under their looks.

"Yeah, I was..." He fumbles, swiftly trying to change the subject. "Anyway, look, um, I definitely did not apply for your grant." He says, pacing over to his desk as Tony moves back, and Harper understands what he's trying to do.

"Pete, he knows." She admits, sighing, and he looks over at her with wide eyes, "He's known for months."

"I've been covering your asses for months, to be more precise." Tony corrects, and Harper watches as Peter's eyes dart frantically between him and her, panic clear on his face.

This is the exact opposite of what she wanted to happen.

"I tried to cover it up." She says defeatedly, looking directly at the boy with apologetic eyes, "I'm sorry."

He slumps down onto the end of his bed, thoughtful expression on his face, and neither Harper or Tony know how to react. Harper opts to giving him a second to process everything, which Tony thankfully follows.

"I'm not in trouble, am I?" Peter asks, eyes drifting away from his hands to look up at the two of them.

"Depends." Tony replies, "Who else knows? Anybody?"

"Nobody."

"Not even your unusually attractive aunt?"

"No!" Peter exclaims, looking both disgusted and horrified, shaking his head profusely, "If she knew, she would freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out."

Harper sighs, crossing the room to take a seat down by his side, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "I know, Pete. She's not gonna find out. Don't worry."

He smiles gratefully, though she can tell that he's still worried. She doesn't blame him. It's a lot to process. This is precisely why she didn't want to get him involved in this besides the physical dangers.

"You know what I think is really cool? This webbing." Tony says suddenly, the two teens glancing over at the man from where he's stood by Peter's desk, playing around with a small capsule of webbing, "That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?"

"We did."

Tony quirks an eyebrow, gesturing between the two of them, "You did? As in a collective 'two' of you?"

"He needed the right equipment. His first suit was practically a onsie." Harper explains, adding when she notices the look that Peter gives her, "Sorry, Pete."

He relents, and she knows it's because even he knows that his original suit wasn't exactly up to scratch. It would be ideal for sleeping in though.

"Climbing walls, how you doing that? Adhesive gloves?" Tony asks, moving away from the desk to the other side of the room as Peter laughs awkwardly.

"It's a long story. I was..."

Tony knocks at a panel in the ceiling then, revealing Peter's suit attached loosely on a string. He gestures to the item, "This the suit?"

Peter nods, "Yeah, that's it."

Tony takes the suit down from the string and inspects it. He seems somewhat impressed by it at first, but then his eyes land on the huge black goggles hanging from the front of the mask and his expression shifts, "What's with the goggles?"

"We were working on that for the next update." Harper explains, shrugging.

"Lordy!" Tony gasps, lifting the goggles up to his eyes, "Can you even see in these?"

Harper groans, standing up and snatching the goggles from him, "He can see in those. Right, Pete."

Peter nods, glancing over at Tony, "It's just that when whatever happened, happened...it's like my senses have been dialled to 11. There's way too much input, so they just kinda help me focus."

Tony nods in understanding. "Why didn't you just install the same gear that I put in your mask?" He asks, turning to Harper, and the girl shrugs.

"Like I said: next update."

Tony turns back to Peter, gesturing to the suit, "You're in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom, hundred-point restoration. That's why I'm here."

Peter looks between the two of them, expression both alarmed and intrigued. Harper moves back over to the bed, sitting down next to him with a sigh. "Something's happening, Pete. Something bad." She says, startled when the boy's eyes light up curiously.

"Aliens?" He questions, tone excitable, "Robots?"

"What? No." She dismisses, shaking her head, "Not this time."

"You're asking me to help?" Peter asks, looking between Harper and Tony, and the former sighs when she recognizes his expression. He can't help it, but he's excited by the idea. Apprehensive for sure, but she can see the familiar look in his eyes. The prospect of being called upon and needed by The Avengers excites him.

Harper turns towards him. "I don't exactly want you getting dragged into this, believe me. If I was in charge, I wouldn't be pulling you into it." She says, sighing, "I know you just wanna look out for the little guy."

"So that's your MO? What gets you outta that twin bed in the morning?" Tony asks, sounding surprisingly interested, as he takes a seat opposite the two of them.

Peter nods, thoughtful expression on his face again. "I've been me my whole life, and I've had these powers for six months. I read books, I build computers. Yeah, I would love to play football, but I couldn't then, so I shouldn't now." He explains, and Tony nods in agreement.

"Sure, because you're different."

"Exactly. But I can't tell anybody that, so I'm not." Peter says, pausing, and neither of them push the boy as he figures out what to say next, "When you can do the things that I can, but you don't and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you."

She understands how he feels. Sure, having super powers is cool and all, but a lot of people don't consider the responsibility that comes with having them. It's yet another reason why she's so against the Accords - they prevent them from helping when they're capable of it.

She places a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and she knows he appreciates it when he smiles back at her.

"You got a passport?"

The two of them turn away from each other to look at Tony. Peter shakes his head. "No, I don't even have a driver's licence." He replies.

"You ever been to Germany?" Tony asks, disregarding his last statement. Peter shakes his head again and Tony quips, "Oh, you'll love it."

"I can't go to Germany." Peter insists, turning to Harper with frantic eyes, "Harper, I can't go to Germany."

"Why?"

"I got homework."

Tony deadpans him, "I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that."

"No, I'm being serious. I can't just drop out of school." Peter insists, looking back at Harper as Tony seems unperturbed by his insistence, clearly perplexed why Tony's ignoring him.

She shrugs, admitting, "Not listening is sort of his thing."

Harper knows that from experience. Once Tony Stark's set on something, it's almost impossible to change his mind.

"Might be a little dangerous." Tony remarks, heading for the door, "Better tell Aunt Hottie I'm taking you on a field trip."

Harper moves to try and stop it, but Peter beats her to the mark. He jumps up, shooting a web directly at Tony's hand as it covers the door handle, trapping it to the metal and stunning both him and Harper.

"Don't tell Aunt May." Peter warns, pointing at Tony accusingly, and Harper seems something flicker in the mans expression.

It almost looks like respect.

"All right, Spider-Man."


	9. 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated! Thanks for all the support guys! Stay safe!

"New York, Queens. It's a rough borough but, hey, it's home."

Harper glances up from her phone with a smirk, stifling a laugh when she catches Peter filming out of the car window as the drive towards the airport. He's putting on a deep, film narrator sort of voice that Harper assumes is to add some dramatic flare to his film, but it's funny to listen to in Harper's opinion.

Happy's driving the two of them back to the airport, Peter having packed a bag of stuff for the trip. Harper didn't exactly need anything - she doubts she'll be hanging around in Berlin after all of this, and she's got the clothes on her back and her suit, which in retrospect is all she really needs. Tony's gone ahead to meet with the rest of their team in Berlin. Harper offered to go with him, but the philanthropist said that it would be better if she stayed with Peter.

She didn't really argue with him, because although she can tell that Peter's excited about all of this, he's also apprehensive, like a fish out of water. He could probably do with some reassurance.

"Who are you talking to?" Happy questions, glancing at them through his dark glasses through the rear-view mirror of the car.

"No one. Just making a little video of the trip." Peter responds, directing the camera towards the driver to illustrate his point. Happy doesn't seem impressed.

"You know you can't show that to anyone?"

"You can show it to me once it's done if you want." Harper says supportingly, and Peter smiles and pans the camera over to her. She waves into it with a laugh as Peter narrates over the top, reverting back to his dramatic voice.

"Harper Eddins. The Beacon."

"Why are you narrating in that voice?" Happy asks.

"Because it's fun." Peter quips back, panning the camera back over to Happy with a grin, "So, uh, why do they call you Happy?"

She can't see his eyes, but Harper's certain that Happy's narrowing them at them. He presses a button and a slide comes up between the back seats and the front of the car, blocking him from view as the panel comes up between them.

"I've never thought about that, you know." Harper says, turning towards Peter as he switches his camera off and places it into his backpack, switching it out for his phone.

"You think it's a nickname?"

"Surely." Harper replies, "I can't imagine someone naming their kid 'Happy' from birth."

"What's his actual name?"

Harper shrugs, "Not a clue."

They get to the airport less than twenty minutes later, Happy driving them directly onto the runway where the private jet's waiting for them. Harper notices the way Peter's face lights up at the sight of it - it's interesting that his first flight is gonna be on a private jet as opposed to on a commercial plane.

Happy comes around the side of the vehicle and opens the door, letting light from outside flood into the darkness of the car, and Harper steps out behind a somewhat bewildered Peter, who's clutching his backpack tightly in his hands.

She goes around to the back of the car and grabs his suitcase out for him, knowing he's too stunned by the sight of the jet to really focus on getting it himself. The two of them follow Happy towards the steps leading into the jet.

"Should I go to the bathroom before or-?" Peter questions, looking between Harper and Happy, the latter responding first.

"There's a bathroom on it."

Peter looks back to Harper, a shocked expression on his face, and she laughs. "You wait until you get on it, Pete. It's cooler from the inside." She says, grinning.

Peter rushes to catch up with Happy, and Harper follows behind him with another laugh, pulling his heavy suitcase along with ease. The two of them walk up the metal stairs into the jet, and the expression on Peter's face when he gets inside is priceless.

He looks like a kid walking into DisneyLand for the first time.

She puts his bag in the correct storage space as he rushes into the main seating area of the plane, moving around excitedly as he films anything and everything with his camera, much to the annoyance of Happy. The bodyguard takes a seat at the side of the jet whilst Harper takes a seat of her own on the opposite side, laughing as Peter continues to walk around and animatedly film everything.

"Is he always like this?" Happy questions exasperatedly, and Harper chuckles, reclining back into her chair with a smirk.

"You'll get used to it."

Peter settles down eventually, taking the seat opposite Harper as he continues to film with his camera. "This is so cool! I didn't realize how awesome planes are!" He says cheerfully.

Harper chuckles, "Yeah. Not all planes are like this, Pete."

She wishes that they could be, but commercial flights are nowhere near as glamorous. She took a couple when she was younger. They weren't unbearable, but they were far from fun. At least she hasn't got to worry about taking them in order to get around anymore. She's got teleportation or flying or even the Quinjet. All of those options outweigh taking a commercial flight by a mile.

"You guys have got a big day coming up." Happy calls from his seat, "You might want to get some sleep."

Harper nods, "He's got a point. Might as well get some sleep before we get there."

Peter nods, seemingly in agreement, though his camera's still switched on and he's bouncing excitedly in his seat. His excitement only grows when the plane begins to rumble as it moves out onto the runway, and as it builds speed he looks over at Harper apprehensively. "Is it supposed to make that noise?" He questions, eyes wide.

"Yeah, you're all good." She replies reassuringly, pointing out the window with a smile, "Look."

He turns towards the window, aiming his camera out of it too, as the plane begins to take off, and he gasps in awe as the runway gets further away and the clouds get closer. It's then that Harper realizes how different her and Peter really are, and how much he reminds her of herself when she first started on all of this. Everything and anything amazes him, and she chooses to play along with that because she doesn't want to ruin it for him.

She settles back into her seat and closes her eyes, knowing that the sleep will do her some good. They've got a long day ahead.

* * *

They step out of the luxury elevator when they reach their floor of the hotel, Happy leading them down the hall towards the correct rooms. Harper has to give Mr Stark some credit - he's got a knack for travelling in style. This hotel has to be one of the nicest she's ever seen.

"This is you, kid." Happy says, stopping by a door and passing the key over to Peter. Harper steps in and takes the key for him, noticing how stunned the boy still seems to be, and she thanks Happy as he disappears into his own room next door.

"Do you not get a room?" Peter questions, glancing at the key in her hands.

"Guess not." Harper replies, shrugging. She turns towards the door and inserts the key, reaching for the door handle when she hears the clicking noise of it unlocking. "I don't think I'll be sticking around after all of this goes down." She admits as she pushes the door open, and the two of them head into the spacious room.

Peter rushes into the room, looking around the ginormous room with his camera pointed at everything he sees, and Harper moves to a small chair at the side of the room and slumps into it, giving him the time to explore the room excitedly. He runs around for several minutes before stopping, switching the camera off and turning towards her curiously.

"So, what exactly is going on here?" He asks, "Like, why are we in Berlin?"

Harper sighs, "It's complicated."

"Mr Stark said it's got something to do with Captain America going crazy."

Harper grits her teeth to prevent herself from snapping. She knows that Peter doesn't understand that what he's saying bothers her - he's just going off of what Mr Stark's told him.

"Crazy's not the word I'd use." She replies, shifting in her seat, and she elaborates when she notices the concerned and confused expression on Peter's face, "Steve made a choice that a lot of people don't agree with, and now it's up to us to find him before someone worse does."

"Just us?"

"No." Harper replies, shaking her head, "We'll have Mr Stark and probably Rhodey."

"War Machine?" Peter questions, eyes lighting up with excitement, "I saw him on the news the other day! He was in Romania, right?"

"Yeah. That's him." Harper says, trying not to think about what happened in Romania too much. She corrects herself, adding, "I'd assume that Vision will be on Mr Stark's side, and then Nat and whoever she's roped into this."

"Vision _and_ Black Widow?" Peter asks, mouth agape, and he checks himself when Harper quirks an eyebrow at him. "Sorry. It's just that this all so cool. I'm actually teaming up with The Avengers." He murmurs excitedly, and Harper has to force a strained smile onto his face.

For her, this isn't all that cool. He's technically not teaming up with The Avengers because they've been split into two, and for her this isn't just a mission, rather it's the time where her family is gonna be fractured potentially to the point beyond repair.

But she still smiles. She grins and bears it because she can see how excited he is, and part of her just can't ruin that for him.

"Yeah. It's pretty cool." She replies, smiling slightly, and she composes herself and nods towards the bathroom door, "Go suit up."

Peter nods and rushes into the bathroom excitedly, and Harper relaxes back into her chair when she hears the bathroom lock click on. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone with a sigh, scrolling through her contacts and picking out a familiar number, holding the device up to her ear as it rings.

_"You've reached Wanda! Leave a message!"_

She sighs as the shrill beep sounds through the phone. "Hey, Wanda. It's Harper again. Just calling to see if you're alright. Call me back when you get this." She says before hanging up, annoyed but not surprised.

She knows that Wanda's technically safe at the facility with Vision - well, whoever Vision's left her with assuming he's joining them - but she'd still feel more reassured if she picked up her phone.

Her phone rings suddenly, startling her, and she rushes to answer it. It's unsurprisingly not Wanda, but it's someone she's still happy to hear from. She answers it.

"You at the hotel yet?"

"Nice to hear from you too, Nat." She chuckles, surprised and amused by the woman's bluntness. "Yeah. We're here. Just suiting up." She adds with a glance over to the bathroom door.

"How was the flight?"

Harper shrugs, "Well, it was on a private jet, so it was pretty good. I had a nap."

"Was it okay?" Nat asks, tone concerned, and Harper knows exactly what she's asking in an instant.

"I wasn't sleeping long enough to have any, so yeah." She replies, concluding, "No nightmares."

She hears Nat exhale over the line. "Okay. Meet us at the airport when you're ready." She says.

"Will do." Harper replies, turning towards the bathroom door when she hears the lock click again. Peter steps out, clad in a suit and mask, and what stands out to Harper is the hideous goggles on the front of his face. "What are you wearing?" She questions, Nat still on the line.

"It's my suit." Peter responds, shrugging and glancing down at his suit.

Harper sighs, "Nat, I'll call you back."

She hangs up the phone and places it back into her pocket, standing up and walking over to Peter as he looks at her excitedly. "Were you on the phone to Black Widow?" He asks.

"Yeah. We're meeting her and the team at the airport right after we sort out...all of this." She responds, gesturing to the suit he's wearing, and Peter glances down at it quizzically.

"What's wrong with it?"

"In my opinion? Nothing." She replies, because in her opinion the suit they developed works quite well, goggles aside that is. "But Mr Stark's worked on an upgrade for you." She explains.

"He has?" Peter asks, looking around the room presumably to try and find the suit in question.

Harper thinks ahead, murmuring that she'll right back before teleporting out of the room, rematerializing in the one next door, "Happy?"

"Gah!" The bodyguard jumps up from his bed upon her arrival with a shout, clearly startled, and he sits up with his hand held to his chest. "Ever heard of knocking?" He asks, exasperated.

"It wastes time." She replies, shrugging, "Where did Mr Stark put Pete's new suit?"

"It should be in the side room."

"Side room?" She questions. She didn't notice a side room when she came in. He doesn't seem to be kidding so she goes with it. "Okay. Thanks, Happy."

She dematerializes out of the room and reappears in Peter's room again, startling the boy upon her arrival. He looks impressed by the display of teleportation, but she shrugs it off. "He said something about a side room."

Her eyes dart around the room, and she notices a door at the far end of the room and heads for it. Peter trails behind her, gasping in surprise when she pushes the door open and reveals a small hallway. "Whoa! I thought that was a closet!" He says, surprised.

The two of them walk down the hallway, heading into another small sitting room that's equally as well furnished as the previous room. Harper notices a metal case on a slim coffee table at the side of the room and she nods towards it.

"That must be it."

Peter looks at her, perhaps waiting for her to go and grab the case, but she nods towards it, smiling, "It's all yours, Pete."

He rushes towards the case, opening it with care and contained excitement, and he jolts back when the case opens up suddenly, revealing a whole new suit inside.

"No way!" Peter gasps in awe, and Harper peers over his shoulder to get a look at the suit for herself.

It looks somewhat similar to the suit that they designed. It's coloration is almost identical - red, blue and black - though the hideous goggles have been replaced with technology similar to that in Harper's suit. It's different cosmetically, but Harper can tell that it's the same tech.

Mr Stark sure does have a knack for creating cool technology.

"This is the best day of my life." Peter says, reaching down and pulling the suit out of the case, and Harper smiles as he looks at it like a child looks at a present on Christmas morning.

It almost makes her forget about the severity of the situation they're about to head into.

"Suit up. I'll let Happy know what's going on, and then I'll come back to collect you." She says, heading out of the room to give him the space to get ready, and she turns back to him with a grin when she reaches the door, "Hope you're prepared to teleport."

"This is the best day of my life!"


	10. 10

The two of them materalize into the empty airport, both of them with their masks up, and the first person they see is Tony, also fully suited up. Well, to be more precise, Tony's the _only_ person they see.

"You took your time." He remarks, walking over to the two of them with metallic steps, and Harper swears she can hear Peter's heart beating out of his chest in excitement.

"Sorry." Harper replies, nodding to Peter, "Suit malfunction."

"What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing! Mr Stark it's perfect!" Peter replies hurriedly, "It's incredible, really!"

Harper has to suppress a chuckle. Peter's really trying to impress Mr Stark, and she kinda feels bad for him because that's not an easy feat to pull off. At least he's trying.

"Where are the others?" Harper questions, glancing around at the empty space around them. She was expecting to at least see Nat and Rhodey too.

"Just in there." Tony replies, gesturing into a small parking complex not far from them. He turns back to the two of them, nodding to Harper. "You wanna run on ahead whilst I brief underoos on the mission plan." He says, and she nods back, turning towards Peter and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"You get in trouble, you tell me, okay?" She says, "I've got your back."

"We've got each others." He responds, proudly adding, "I'm an Avenger too now."

"Now you're not." Tony says abruptly, head snapping over to the boy rapidly, and Harper steps back awkwardly as Peter fumbles over his words.

"I just thought that-."

"You thought wrong, kid." Tony says dismissively. He turns to Harper accusingly, "Did you tell him he was an Avenger?"

"What? No." Harper says, shaking her head. She sighs, grabbing onto Peter and pulling him to the side. "You got this, Pete. See you on the other side." She says, smiling beneath her mask, and she can tell that he's smiling back when he fist bumps her back.

She heads inside the parking complex then, not feeling the need to teleport given its close proximity, and the first person she sees when she gets inside is Nat, standing out because of her familiar red-hair.

"Nat?"

Nat turns around when she hears her name, startling Harper when she walks over to her and hugs her tightly. Harper hugs her back. "You okay?" Nat murmurs, voice so low that Harper reckons she can only hear it because of her enhanced senses, and Harper sighs.

Nat figured out she was putting on a facade within a couple of seconds. She's got to get better at it.

"I've been worse." She compromises, shrugging. She pulls back and Nat smiles weakly, and she's thankful for the mask because it means she doesn't have to force a smile back. She glances around, first noticing Rhodey, all ready in his War Machine armor, but it's then that she notices the other member of their so called team.

She can't see their face, but she can tell who it is by their suit, and the sight of them makes her anger resurface.

"Your plan is T'Challa? The man wants Bucky dead!" She exclaims incredulously, voice so loud that Rhodey and T'Challa both pause and glance in her direction, and Nat rushes to try and silence her.

"He wants justice. That's all." Nat reassures in a hushed tone. Harper scoffs and Nat sighs, admitting, "There aren't exactly a lot of options, Harper."

Her expression's pleading, and Harper can tell that she's being honest, but that doesn't make her okay with this. Not in the slightest. It's different when you're fighting with emotion - it makes you irrational and impulsive. Harper knows that from experience. Prince or not, pulling T'Challa into this is a major risk.

"Do we really need this many of us? There's only three of them." She questions, sighing. None of them answer, though they all share a look that makes her suspicious. "What?" She asks, confused, as Rhodey approaches with clunky steps.

"Clint came to the facility last night and took Wanda. Vision told us." He explains, "It can be assumed that they're working alongside Cap."

It's almost laughable. As if Harper was against this enough already, now they've got to go up against Wanda and Clint too. She's getting the sense that her hands are gonna start flickering at any moment, but she hasn't got the self control nor the will to try and stop them.

"And where is Vision?" She questions, gulping back the lump building in her throat.

"On his way." Rhodey responds, and she nods, though it's ironic because she refuses to believe any of this.

"There's no way Clint could've overpowered Vision."

Among the other thoughts racing around in her hand, that one's taking the forefront at the minute. Clint's a skilled fighter, even without his trusty bow and arrow set, but Vision's a lot stronger. Being an android alone is an advantage, and when you factor in the stone, it doesn't exactly make him the easiest opponent to take on. Clint simply couldn't take him down no matter how much he tried.

"What are you saying?" Rhodey questions, tone somewhat accusatory, and Harper keeps her mouth shut when she comes to her own conclusion.

Wanda must've done it.

She changes the subject, glancing around at the three adults. "What? We have to bring them all in now." She questions frustratedly, her answer coming in the form of no answer. Her hands begin to flare, lighting up the dark space inside of the parking complex as she yells, "You've got to be shitting me!"

"Harper, calm-."

"Don't tell me to calm down, Nat!" She shouts, brandishing her glowing hands around angrily, and the red-head steps back, seemingly stunned by her outburst, "This shit has gone too far!"

She's spiralling. She knows that she is. She knows that she's flipping out of control, but none of this is under control. Everything's a mess, and regardless of what anyone says or does it's not gonna change. The only way they can try and gain control again is if they stop it.

They have to stop it.

"Barnes is the reason my father is dead!" T'Challa says, tone warning, as he approaches her, "Him and his accomplices deserve to be punished for their crimes!"

She understands why T'Challa's angry, and she knows she'd be a hypocrite in telling him to contain his anger because she can't do that herself. But she also knows that he's misunderstanding the situation.

"You don't even know if it was him!"

It slips out before she can stop it. She's been thinking about what Steve said, about the fact that she truly believes that Bucky's good. What he did and what he was, it wasn't him. It was HYDRA. She doesn't know him, but she's certain of it, because Steve hasn't give up on him and she has faith in him.

Even now, with her world and everyone in it on fire, she still has faith in him.

"What are you talking about, Harper?"

Nat's question is a valid one, and it's one she's sure all of them have, but she ignores it. She ignores it because amid the constant tuning in and out of her focus on the people around her, she hears footsteps. Familiar footsteps, to be more precise, and she teleports to them without another word, following them like a moth to the light.

"Harper?"

She appears in front of him, not remotely threatened by the sight of him in his full suit, shield in hand. She's almost relieved to see the shield because it means they must've had some help - she has a feeling that she knows who helped him get the prized possession back too. She thought that seeing Steve might help contain some of her anger, but her hands continue to shine brightly.

"Wanda's with you, isn't she?"

Steve sighs, "I know you want to protect her-."

"Her? I want to protect all of us, Steve! I don't want any of this!"

The ferocity and pain in her voice seems to take him aback, but that's not exactly her main priority right now. She's angry and frustrated and scared and hurt and...a kid.

She's just a kid, and everything she knows is falling apart.

"I want things to go back to how they were! I want Wanda to play her guitar all the time so that I can hear it when I'm walking around! I want Vision to phase into rooms and startle us again! I want to make jokes and play pranks with Sam! I-I want Rhodey to get fed up with me for bugging him in his office! I want you and Nat to lead us again! I want it all back, Steve! I want my family back!"

She's screaming at him, voice practically ripping out of her throat, and she's certain that if it wasn't for the openness of the space that they're in, it would echo continuously. She's staring right at his kind eyes, and she can see that he's seeing her for what she is, and the pain that registers on his face only makes her feel worse.

"I know, Harper." He responds, tone honest and sincere, pain and understanding flickering in his eyes, "And I know you're trying to do the right thing."

"I'm not doing the right thing, Steve! I'm doing the wrong thing because I don't agree with any of this! I never have!" She shouts painfully, and her hands are glowing so brightly that they're practically blinding, "I'm trying to fix this!"

She knows that she's not on the right side. She's always known that. She's only stuck around for so long because there's people on her side that she has to protect; she's come to realize that's not a good enough excuse, because there's also people on the opposite side she has to protect too.

She doesn't know what she's doing anymore, but what she does know is that she's running against the clock, frantically trying to force all of the fragmented pieces back together.

"There's more going on than you know, Harper." Steve tells her, and she believes him, but it doesn't stop the glowing of her hands.

She swallows back another lump in her throat as she taps on her control suit panel, bringing her mask down to expose her face fully to Steve, and his expression shifts when he sees the raw and unhinged look in her face for the first time.

She looks at him pleadingly, "Please, Steve."

She doesn't know what she was expecting, but it still hurts when she realizes that he's not gonna back down. Part of her was expecting it, and part of her is proud that he's standing his ground, but the other part, the scared kid who just wants her family back, is falling apart, and that part completely shatters when she hears two sets of mechanical feet land down by her side.

"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport." Tony remarks casually, glancing over at Rhodey, "Don't you think that's weird?"

Rhodey nods within the suit, "Definitely weird."

"Hear me out, Tony. That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this." Steve reasons, casting a glance over at Harper, "The same one that tricked you back at the centre."

She knows who he's talking about, but she doesn't say anything. She stands there, barely focusing in on what any of them are saying, as T'Challa appears, standing with a tall, strong posture before Steve. The men all talk at each other, but she's hardly listening to them. Her head's spinning with her thoughts, and all she can think about is how everything's falling apart.

She can't fix it. She can't stop what's going to happen.

"Underoos!"

She registers Tony's shout, and she's mildly aware of the shadow passing over her as Peter yanks the shield out of Steve's hands using his webs, binding the super soldiers hands together in the process. She hears him fumble over his words, but she doesn't pay any attention to what he says, even when he calls out her name.

"Well done, Rogers. You broke the kid."

She'd normally snap at Tony for making such a bold accusation, because it's far from the truth. She's not...he didn't break her. The situation's to blame, not Steve.

She listens to their heartbeats, not what they're saying. She counts them along with her own. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...

There's eight. How can there be eight?

"Eight." She mumbles, eyes snapping up from her glowing hands, and she follows the sound. She pinpoints it, finding her voice as she glances, panicked, in Peter's direction. "Give me the shield!" She yells, startling and confusing everyone, Peter in particular.

"Huh?"

She teleports to him, using her strength to yank the shield from his hands and knock him out of the way. He's clear just as she feels herself being struck in the face, knocking her to the concrete as she feels the shield slip from her grasp.

"I believe this is yours, Captain America."

She rises to her feet, ignoring the searing pain in her face, as she stares at the man suddenly at Steve's side as he passes his shield back to him. She doesn't recognize the guy - he's in a red suit that she's never seen before - but he looks over at her and she sees recognition flash in his eyes.

"Oh, god! I just kicked a teenage girl in the face!" He cries, horrified, and Harper's hands flare brightly as she glares at him.

"Pissed her off too." Tony remarks, and Harper doesn't argue with him because he's not wrong. Unluckily for this guy, she doesn't have any objections to kicking his ass like she does with the others.

Everyone splits off then, with Steve rushing to try and get to Bucky and Sam. T'Challa chases after him along with Rhodey, whilst Tony rushes to try and grab Wanda, who's apparently running alongside Clint not too far away. Peter rushes off too, using his webs to zip away quickly, leaving both Harper and Nat with the mystery man on Cap's side.

Harper wastes no time in taking him down, stalking over to him with strong strides, her hands glowing vividly. The man slowly backs up as she approaches, hands raised defensively.

"Can I just say, I wasn't aiming for you. I was going for the other guy."

"That other guy is my friend!" She snaps, rage flaring, and she can hear his heart beat get faster and faster, and he lets out a nervous laugh as he continues to back up.

"Look, I heard your conversation with Cap. You don't want any of this." He says hastily, and she stops for a second.

She falters because he's right. She doesn't want any of this. She wants it all to stop. She wants her family back and for the Accords to be gone and for everyone to calm down.

He laughs nervously, adding, "And you have to admit that Stark's a bit of a jacka-."

She strikes him with a glowing fist in the chest before he can finish, sending him flying onto the tarmac, and she knows he's fine when he rolls over and groans in pain. She agrees with what he's saying, but that doesn't change the fact that he's talking badly about someone she cares about.

Plus the guy kicked her in the face, so she's not exactly his biggest fan right now.

"Harper."

She turns around, hands still flickering, to see Nat approaching her cautiously, expression both concerned and warning. Looking at the redhead, it makes her remember why she's in this mess and why she's still playing along with it. She's got people she needs to protect - there's Nat and Peter and even Rhodey and Mr Stark, but she also wants to protect Wanda and Sam and Clint and Steve, and even Bucky for Steve's sake.

In that moment, when she looks at Nat, she realizes what she has to do.

"Can you handle him?" She asks, nodding towards the other guy as he begins to get back to his feet. Nat nods and Harper nods back, "Good."

She moves past the redhead, stopping when she grabs onto her arm, looking at her with pure concern that almost makes Harper feel worse about all of this. She shakes her head, shaking her arm free, "I'm fine. I know what I'm doing."

That's not entirely true. She doesn't know what she's about to do, not really. All she knows is that she wants to protect both sides of this battle, and that's what she intends on doing.

She moves on before Nat can question her, flying off in the direction that Peter went in. She saw him head inside one of the terminals, and she runs inside through the automatic sliding doors, looking around the ground floor of the building. She doesn't see anything, but she hears the shouting from above even without her enhanced senses operating.

She teleports up top, not bothering to waste her time with the stairs, and she catches a sight of Peter for a mere second before he's gone, crashing through a glass window as he's sent flying outside of the building. She looks around, confused, but then she sees Sam and Bucky, stuck next to each other on the terminal floor, Peter's webs restricting their movement.

She rushes over to them, and Sam must hear her coming because he lifts his head to look at her, and he looks somewhat cautious, and whilst she can't blame him it still frustrates her because he shouldn't have to be cautious.

"Told you I'd catch up." She says, kneeling down by his side, and a relieved grin crosses his face as she says that. Bucky still looks wary, but Harper tries to ignore that. "Don't hurt the spider." She says.

"Too late." Bucky grumbles, and she shoots a look at him that makes Sam laugh.

"He your friend?" Sam questions, and Harper begins to work on freeing them from the webs.

"Friend? Responsibility? Reason I'm gonna die prematurely?" She says, grunting slightly when she tears at the strong webs, "All of the above."

Sam smirks, "Now you know how Nat feels."

She deadpans him, tearing off the last of the webs and stepping back. She nods to the exit, remarking bluntly, "Go before I have to kick your asses."

Sam nods, a grateful and sad smile on his face, and Harper feels a horrible sinking feeling on her chest as she watches him run away. Bucky begins to run with him before hesitating, and the former assassin stops and turns towards her, asking calmly, "Who's side are you on?"

You'd think that being one of the smartest people on the planet would make it so you can answer any and all questions thrown at you, but as she stands opposite Bucky in the empty and damaged terminal, she finds it hard to give him an answer.

"I don't know." She admits, "I'll still kick your ass if you don't leave, though."

He nods, and he looks like he might say something, but then he turns and runs after Sam, leaving her stood alone in the terminal. She smiles in relief, but it's brief, because she doesn't know when or if she'll really feel relieve again.

She waits until they're gone before tapping into comms, tapping into a private link between herself and Peter, "Pete, where are you?"

She hears him groan in pain, though it's clear that he's trying to conceal it. "I'm outside the terminal. I'm heading back now."

She doesn't respond verbally, instead opting to teleport directly out to him. He jumps in surprise when she appears in front of him, instantly raising his guard with a yell, and she raises her hands in surrender. "Relax, Pete! It's only me!"

He stops, breathing a sigh of relief, and she reaches out and grabs onto his arm, wincing as she feels the pain seep into her own body. Who knew crashing through glass would hurt so much?

"You okay?" She asks, feeling the pain begin to subside, and he nods. It's not much, but it gives her some reassurance, and for a second she feels calm and in control.

And then there's the loud boom of an explosion, followed by the sight of rising flames in the distance, and just like that she's back in her prolonged state of panic.

"Holy shit!" Peter gasps, seemingly both startled and impressed by the explosion. Harper sighs, tapping her mask back on and grabbing onto Peter's arm, and he looks at her, perplexed.

"You ready to fly?"

"Fly?" He questions, tone excitable. He grips onto her arm. "This is the best day of my life!"

It's funny, because it's the worst day of hers, but she doesn't say that as she flies up into the air, pulling him along with her. They fly through the runway, and Harper follows the sound of the heartbeats to find everyone else. She eventually finds them, standing in two lines opposite one another, and from above it's clear to see just how big the divide is.

She notices Vision too, the stone in his head glowing against his red and silver head, and that's when she realizes what this is. Part of her is screaming at her to run, to teleport away and take Peter with her, but then she catches a sight of Tony glancing up at her and Peter and she knows that she can't.

She drops her and Peter down alongside Tony and Nat, and she's thankful that her mask is up because it's hiding the hurt on her face as she looks over at her friends - at her family - that she knows she's gonna have to fight against.

They start walking towards them, and their side mimics their actions. Harper hears Nat murmur something about this not ending well, but all she can focus on is the person she's charging at. For her, that just so happens to be Wanda.

She's stopped in her tracks by red wisps when she's a few steps away from the other girl, though she's not threatened. She smirks, in fact. "You know, you're really shit at answering your phone." She quips.

Wanda shrugs, "I was busy."

"Oh, I'll bet." Harper responds, moving just enough to blast a projectile at the space in front of Wanda, distracting her for long enough so she loses her control on her. She steps through the blast, fists raised, "You and Vis have fun? Do some baking?"

"He tried to cook."

"Bet that went well." Harper quips, suddenly reaching out and grabbing onto the other girl before she can react, flipping her onto the tarmac and standing over her. Wanda groans in pain, but Harper rushes to take it before she can really feel it, and the other girl looks at her with a perplexed expression as she stands over her.

From a distance, it looks like the two are genuinely fighting, which is precisely what she was going for.

"Listen to me." She says, tone low and instructing, backing up slightly from the other girl so she has the room to stand. "On three you're gonna throw me into T'Challa, okay?" She explains, subtlety nodding to the prince as he fights with Bucky not too far from them.

"What?"

"One." Harper counts, swinging for Wanda when she's back on her feet. "It'll knock him off of Bucky for a few seconds."

Wanda dodges the strike, catching the other girls fist in a swirl of red mist, looking at her incredulously, "Are you crazy?"

"I prefer the term 'smart'." Harper shrugs, going for a kick this time, and Wanda catches her again, "Two."

"This isn't a good idea." Wanda warns.

"It's the only one I've got." Harper admits, looking at Wanda pleadingly, and the other girl thankfully recognizes that. Harper nods, still in Wanda's hold, as she counts, "Three."

She's sent flying through the air, surrounding by a thick red mist, and she comes to a stop when she collides full force with another body. Her and T'Challa both hit the side of one of the airplanes, the both of them crumpling to the solid concrete right after, and Harper would be lying if she said it didn't hurt like a bitch.

She turns her head as she lays on the floor, catching a glance at Bucky as he runs in the opposite direction, and she could almost sigh in relief. Almost, that is, because T'Challa's back on his feet, staring down at her through his mask.

He extends an arm out to her, and that's when she knows she's in the clear.

"Sorry!" She replies, standing to her feet, "She can move stuff with her mind!"

T'Challa grumbles something back before glancing around, and his demeanor immediately shifts when he notices the absence of Bucky. His eyes dart around, and it doesn't take long for him to notice the increasingly distant figure of Bucky as he retreats, and he runs after him with remarkable speed immediately.

"Harper! Harper, help!"

She had intended on running after T'Challa - she didn't exactly have a plan, but she never does - but she stalls when she hears Peter's voice over comms, tone panicked and rushed. He needs her help.

"A.M.Y, where is he?" She asks, tapping her control panel, and the A.I responds within seconds.

"By Hangar Six."

She teleports to the coordinates the A.I provides her with, finding her friend stood alone by the terminal, struggling to support an entire jet bridge above his head. She has questions, but she knows that now isn't the time to ask them.

She teleports again, grabbing hold of Peter with a tight grip on his arm before teleporting back out, moving the both of them out of harms way as the jet bridge crashes onto the concrete. She turns to him once they're clear. "You okay?" She asks, looking at him for any visible signs of injury. He looks okay.

He nods, groaning in frustration, "I almost had him!"

"Who?" She questions, confused.

"Captain America. I went for his legs like Mr Stark said and I almost had him!"

She has to admit, that's kinda impressive. If Peter's being honest, that means he held his own against Steve. Even she struggles to do that.

The two of them run back towards the others, Peter eager to get involved in the fight and Harper eager to enact the rest of her ridiculous plan. She doesn't really know what she's doing; she's technically playing both sides, but part of her is hoping that Steve's side comes out on top. The other part is scrambling to protect the people she cares about on both sides.

They reach the space where everyone's fighting soon after, running into the clear space as a giant figure suddenly emerges. The two of them watch, awestruck beneath their masks, as the man who kicked Harper in the face grows to a terrifying and hulking size, taller than the planes and buildings around them. He's got a grip on Rhodey by his legs, and the thrusters of the colonel's suit are working at max capacity as he tries to break free.

"Holy shit!" Peter gasps, stepping back slightly in shock, and Harper understands how he feels because she's never seen anything like this before.

Where did Steve even find this guy?

The giant guy swings his huge, muscular arm before releasing Rhodey from his grip, sending him flying towards a nearby plane. Peter springs into action, jumping up and swinging off in Rhodey's direction.

She looks around, trying to get a judgement on what's going on. She can't see Steve or Bucky, but she doesn't know if that's a good or bad thing because she can't see Nat either. Sam's taking on Tony, whilst Vision's rushing around trying to protect T'Challa as the giant man launches everything from boxes to buses at the prince.

She spots one other person. Clint. He's stood alone, bow loaded and ready to fire as he looks around for any approaching targets, and it's not long before he makes eye contact with her from across the tarmac. He tightens his grip on his bow, and for a second she thinks that he might shoot, but he stops when the giant man on his side hits a nearby plane, severing one of the wings from the aircraft with one strike. She figures he intended for it to hit someone on Tony's side, but she can tell from the second it begins to fall that Clint's gonna be the one caught up in the wreckage.

She's not about to let that happen.

She teleports over to him and grabs onto him tightly, teleporting the both of them out of the way just before the wing hits the tarmac, engulfing the area nearby in smoke and flames.

Clint's eyes dart around, momentarily confused, but he sees her and stills. He backs up slightly, less cautious and more instinctive than anything, and he lowers his guard slightly as they stand opposite one another.

"Hey, kid. It's been a while." He quips, grip still on his bow, but he seems less wary.

"Likewise." Harper responds, thankful for the smoke cause it's disguising them from the others. She can hear them fighting still. "How are the kids?" She asks.

Clint shrugs, admitting gruffly, "Pissed off that I bailed on water-skiing."

"Not surprised. Water-skiing's fun." She responds, and Clint laughs, classic grin coming to his face. The smoke begins to clear, and she knows that it's her time to go. "Try not to die." She quips, and then she's flying off and leaving Clint in the dust, both confused and relieved for the help.

She focuses her efforts on the giant man, joining Rhodey in firing shots at the opponent from afar. His arms are big, so she knows that getting too close will only result in her getting struck down.

She comes at him from behind, hitting him relentlessly with blasts of light, and it's not long before he turns away from Rhodey to look at her.

"Hey! Cut it out!" He whines, swinging for her with a colossal fist, and she counters by flying out of his range and continuing to fire projectiles at him.

She keeps shooting at him, being careful to dodge Peter as he swings aimlessly around the large opponent, and she figures that he's trying to find a weak point to target. He's swinging for quite a while before he loses control, and she can tell before it happens that he's gonna lose it, so she flies to catch him when he loses grip on his web and goes flying.

He catches his flailing body before he can hit the tarmac, lowering the two of them down to the ground safely. "You okay?" She asks, breathless, and he nods back.

"Yeah!" He responds, breathing just as heavily as her. The two of them glance back up at the giant man, watching as he tries to deflect both Rhodey and Vision's blasts. "This guy's super big!"

"Yeah." Harper murmurs, watching in just as much shock as her friend.

"You know him?"

"Nope." She replies, shaking her head, "Got any ideas?"

"You're the Avenger!"

"Yeah, but I've never gone up against something like this!" She protests, gesturing to their giant opponent, "Well, there was this one giant robot thingy, but I got knocked out before I could even do anything about it! I've never faced anything this big!"

She doesn't know how they're supposed to stop this guy. She's never faced a foe so big, and if their blasts aren't doing anything, then how are they supposed to stop him?

"Big."

She looks away from the giant man to glance at Peter, perplexed, "What?"

"Big!" He exclaims, tapping into comms and asking excitedly, "Hey, guys, you ever see that really old movie, Empire Strikes Back?"

The response they get is mixed and confused, but Harper quickly figures out what Peter's talking about. "The AT-AT Walkers!" She gasps, realization dawning on her face, "You're a genius!"

"What are you kids on about?" Tony questions, sounding both skeptical and dismissive, and Harper taps into comms to respond.

"We've got this one, Mr Stark!" She replies, tapping out of comms and looking back at Peter. "You reckon you can get his legs?" She asks, and he nods.

"Can you knock him down once I've got him?"

She nods back, and the two of them spring into action. He latches onto the giant man with his webs again, this time targeting his legs. Harper flies up as Peter spins around the man's legs rapidly, binding them together with the thick and reinforced strength of his webs. His legs begin to bind together, and Harper takes that as her signal.

She flies up high, coming to the front side of the giant man as he begins to stagger back, and she kicks him square in the chest with all of the strength she can muster.

She knows it's enough when he topples backwards into a nearby plane, severing it in half as he crashes down onto the tarmac. As he topples, she catches sight of Peter swinging around, holding a thumbs up to her when he spots her, momentarily distracting him.

She watches, horrified, as the giant mans arm swings into him as he falls backwards, sending Peter flying across the tarmac and into some nearby boxes, and she doesn't know if that's a good or a bad thing because they may have cushioned his fall.

"Pete!" She yells, rushing off in his direction as the giant man shrinks down to a normal size. She lands down by his side, panicking when she sees him laying there limply, but then he turns towards her, mask askew on his face, and she sighs in relief.

He smiles, breathless, "I can't believe that actually worked." He says with a laugh, "Did we do that?"

"Yeah." She replies, nodding, because she's trying to convince herself that this happened. That any of this happening. "Yeah. We did, Pete."

She's startled when Tony lands down by her side then, mask up. He looks down at Peter, relief crossing his face when he sees him moving, and Peter looks up at him excitedly, "How'd I do, Mr Stark?

"You did a good job but stay down." Tony replies simply, and Peter's face falls, "You're done, alright?"

"Wait! But I'm not don-!"

"You're staying down or I'll call Aunt May!" Tony warns him, stunning Peter temporarily into silence. He turns towards Harper. "Take him back to the hotel." He says, and then he's gone, not giving Peter the chance to protest his decision.

Harper kneels down by his side, reaching out and grabbing onto Peter's arm, and she catches his yell of protest just as the two of them leave the tarmac.

They reappear in his hotel room, finding themselves, battered and torn, stood in the middle of the pristine room, and Harper almost feels bad for bringing the dirt and grime from the fight into the room.

It's as she looks around that the fatigue and the reality of the situation catches up to her, and it's beyond crushing. She staggers over to the side of the room, grabbing one of the candies from the complementary basket and inspecting it.

"You did good, Pete." She murmurs, her back to him.

"But I can do more!" He protests, exasperated, and she sighs, shoulders sagging.

There's no denying that he can do more. That he can do good. He's done it time and time before back home. She's just not entirely sure if what they just did can be classed as good.

"You don't want to, Pete. Trust me."

"What are you talking about? That was awesome!" Peter exclaims, and she turns back to him then, and his expression instantly shifts. "Harper, what's wrong?" He asks, pulling his mask off fully, and she steels her expression.

"I'll contact you in a few days." She says simply, stepping away from the basket to walk back towards him, "Until then, lay low."

She was hoping that he'd just accept that and leave it, but then she remembers that he's Peter and of course he won't. He likely wouldn't normally, and now he's concerned too, meaning there's not a chance he's gonna let this slide.

"Harper, what's going on?"

"Are you hurt?" She asks, ignoring his question as she tries to keep her steeled expression, and he looks at her incredulously.

"Harper, that's not-!"

"Are you hurt, Peter?" She asks again, and he doesn't respond, but she does catch him wincing. She reaches out, grabbing onto his arm and closing her eyes, and she hisses when she feels it. He really took a fall back there.

She takes a couple of steps back, wincing as she does, and she tries to ignore the conflict and confusion on his face as she says, "I'll contact you as soon as I can. I promise."

She teleports back out of the room, reappearing on the tarmac, and the first thing that she notices is how quiet it is. She glances around the runway. No sign of Tony or Rhodey or Sam or Vision, so that leaves all the fliers unaccounted for. She doesn't know where Clint is, or Wanda, or T'Challa or Nat, and there's no sign of Steve or Bucky either.

It's eerily quiet for a few moments, and for a second she's convinced that she's the only person there, but then she hears a low groan of pain nearby that indicates to her that she's not.

She follows the sound, turning a corner and finding the giant man - not so giant anymore - laying on the tarmac with his mask up. She walks over to him, getting the first good look of his face. He looks to be in his late thirties to early forties, the stubble on his face contrasting his surprisingly youthful face.

She still doesn't recognize him though.

"Never thought I'd get my ass kicked by a teenage girl." He groans, glancing up at her tentatively.

"You put up a decent fight." She replies, shrugging, because it's true. It wasn't easy to take him down. "Who are you?" She asks.

He seems hesitant, but he relents. She'd probably do the same in his position.

"Ant-Man."

"Ant-Man?" She questions, eyebrows furrowed. It makes sense, but it's kinda bizarre."I'd say nice to meet you, but I feel like it's a bit too late for a polite introduction." She responds, and he surprises her by laughing.

"No kidding." He says, grimacing slightly as he laughs. He stops, glancing up at her with a wince, "You got any orange slices?"

She shakes her head, "Not on me."

She feels like she'd get along with this Ant-Man guy if it weren't for the situation. He seems alright. Slightly out of it, but alright.

The black vans careen onto the tarmac at that moment, the sound of their tyres screeching almost unbearable to listen to, and then multiple men in full body armor come rushing out the back of the vehicles, and Harper can see the guns and batons in their hands from a mile off.

They rush in her direction, yanking Ant-Man to his feet roughly when they reach him, and she watches in horror as they point a gun to his back, practically forcing the barrel into his suit.

"What the hell is this?!" She yells, moving in front of two of the men as they try and drag Ant-Man back to the van, "We're supposed to be bringing them in!"

She doesn't understand what's happening. The rules were that they had 36 hours to bring them in. She knows they've still got some of that time left. These guys have no right to be here, and even know she hardly knows Ant-Man, even though she literally just fought him, the sight of him being manhandled by these guys enrages her.

"We've been sent on the orders of Secretary Ross. We have been told to use force if there's any resistance."

"It's okay, kid." Ant-Man tells her, expression surprisingly calm, "I've been here before."

She doesn't understand what he means, but she doesn't get the chance to ask him before the armed men drag him away, and when she sees him get shoved into the van her panic begins to settle in truly.

She flies up above all of the planes and buildings, giving her full view of the tarmac. It doesn't take her long to spot the second black van, and her heart sinks when she sees who's being loaded into it.

She teleports down there as Wanda's almost at the van, her face fear stricken and confused, and it only makes Harper's heart sink even more.

"Hey! Let go of her!" She shouts, launching herself into one of the guys gripping onto Wanda, knocking him away from her; another guy instantly comes in to replace him, and the guy she struck down turns towards her with rage in his eyes.

She prepares herself to dodge a counter strike, and if that fails strike him back, when she feels a strong arm come around her neck, enclosing her in a tight but non-choking grip.

"Harper, you need to calm down."

She flails around as Vision pulls her back and away from Wanda, trying to fight back against his strength as her friend gets further and further away. "Vision, get off of me!" She screams, heart pounding as she watches Wanda get loaded into the back of the van, "Let go or I'll teleport out of this!"

"You will only make things worse. If they don't hurt you, they'll hurt them." Vision states calmly, grip tightening, and it makes her heart sink even more because she knows it's true.

At first, all she feels is anger. It's the anger that makes her writhe around in his grip.

She doesn't know when she starts crying, but she suspects it's when the door to the van slams shut, and just before it does she catches a glimpse of Wanda's terrified and pleading eyes looking back at her.

She sobs, continuing to feebly struggle in Vision's grip, "L-let me go! Let! Me! Go!"

"It's like I said: catastrophe."


	11. 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos appreciated! They really do inspire me to write! Stay safe guys!

Harper slumps back down into her uncomfortable lab chair again, making a mental note to get a new one in A.S.A.P. She had meant to get one before all of this happened, but she never got around to it. It doesn't exactly seem like such a big priority anymore.

She moves her hand across her tired face, trying and failing to get comfortable in the chair. "Alright, A.M.Y. How are those scans coming along?" She asks, sighing exhaustedly, and the A.I is quick to respond.

"At an 87% completion rate, Harper. Approximately two minutes until analysis is ready."

"Thank you." Harper responds, gratefulness masked by the tiredness of her voice. She leans back in her chair, sighing, "I really hopes this works."

A moment passes, giving Harper the chance to realize just how quiet it is in the lab, before the A.I speaks up again.

"I understand that Colonel Rhodes is still being treated. Shall I contact Mr Stark for information?"

"No!" Harper shouts hastily, jumping up in her seat, and she checks herself before speaking in a more composed manner, "No thanks, A.M.Y. It's fine."

She doesn't want to talk to anyone right. Not Tony. Not Vision. Not Rhodey, even though she does want to know if he's doing alright. Even if he's not, hopefully she can help him if she can get this right. That's part of the reason why she's been working so hard on it.

She doesn't want to talk to anyone right now after everything. Not Tony. Not Vision. Not Rhodey. Not Nat. No one.

"What are you working on?"

But, of course, one of them comes in, and of course it's the person who's least likely to leave without a proper answer.

She's aware of Nat coming up behind her, and she quickly rushes to swipe away the slides plastered across the monitors in front of her, murmuring a hasty response back, "Nothing."

"Harper is attempting to understand her healing capabilities through blood scans and analysis." A.M.Y explains, and Harper turns away from the monitors then with a frustrated expression.

"A.M.Y!" She snaps angrily, "You're supposed to be my friend!"

"I'm a piece of Artificial Intelligence software, Harper."

Harper groans, glaring at the A.I despite not having a physical entity to target her stare at, as Nat moves around to the front side of her, getting a good look at her exhausted face for the first time. Harper sees the concern hit her face, and she inwardly groans as she realises what's coming.

"How long have you been in here?" Nat asks her, tone concerned. Harper ignores the question, turning back to the monitor, and Nat asks next, "Did you go to bed last night?"

She ignores her again, not only for the fact that she doesn't want to give her the answer, but also for the fact that she doesn't want to give her _an_ answer. She doesn't want to talk to anyone right now.

"Harper?" Nat asks, tone more insistent and pressing, and Harper doesn't know if it's Nat's tone or her own exhaustion and irrationality that makes her snap, but she does.

"I didn't, okay?!" She yells, turning towards the older woman with fatigued and angry eyes, and the red-head seems startled by the ferocity in her voice. "I couldn't sleep knowing that we let them down! That we screwed up so badly!"

It's all she's been able to think about. They caused this because they didn't step in to stop it sooner. She had to watch her family get dragged away, and even though Steve got away with Bucky, she knows it's only a matter of time before they're tracked down and locked up too.

She had to watch her entire world fall apart, and she stood there helplessly and let it happen. Despite her powers and intelligence and strength, none of it was enough to stop what happened. She didn't do good enough. She wasn't good enough.

She isn't good enough.

"We did what we had to do."

None of them are good enough, because even though she made promises, she's not the only one.

"You lied to me." Harper says, voice low and angry. She turns back to Nat, looking at her with a level of hurt and betrayal that makes the woman flinch, "You said that we'd protect each other. That we'd all look out for each other."

Nat seems stunned, even hurt, as she shakes her head, voice shaking subtlety as she talks, "Everything I did, I did to protect you."

"I never asked you to, Nat!" Harper yells back, anger taking over, and Nat keeps composed as she replies simply.

"It's my job, Harper."

Harper scoffs, "It's not your job, Nat! It's no ones job!"

She's sick of hearing that it's everyone's job to protect her. She was trying to protect people and she was stopped, but it's okay for everyone else to protect her? She doesn't deserve to be shielded from everything. Not after what she let happen.

"Scans and analysis complete." A.M.Y says, cutting between the one-sided argument between the two of them, and Harper turns back to the monitor with bleary eyes as the analysis appears on the screen, A.M.Y's robotic voice there to accompany it.

"Results: inconclusive."

Harper shakes her head in disbelief, the frustration seeping into her bones. "Scan it again." She insists through gritted teeth, and A.M.Y's response only adds to her frustration.

"Unfortunately I cannot, Harper."

"Fine! Scan another sample."

She has to get this right. She has to help. She has to do _something_ right.

"That was the 54th sample, Harper. I'm afraid drawing more blood wouldn't be wise even with your enhanced conditi-."

"Just do it, A.M.Y!" Harper yells, and the A.I doesn't respond, "I'll do it myself!"

She staggers out of her chair, her legs buckling when she tries to stand, and Nat rushes to catch her when she stumbles, latching onto her arms tightly. "Hey, hey, hey." She rushes, anger gone and replaced with concern, "Take it easy, okay?"

Harper feebly pushes against her, pure rage in her exhausted voice, "Don't tell me to take it easy, Nat! I can't take it easy after what we did!"

She weakly struggles against Nat, but the red-head holds her stance, not letting go despite Harper's attempts to break off. Normally, she could be out by now, but she's too tired and done with everything to really bother.

I-I promised Wanda that I'd protect her a-and I promised Steve and Sam that everything would be okay! I said we'd all be fine and we're not! We're not fine!" She screams, and she can feel herself approaching the point of tears, but she keeps going. She doesn't know what it is more: sadness or anger. She knows that it's strong and it hurts and she hates it. "And now I can't even get this fucking right!" She cries, gesturing weakly to the monitors as she stops struggling, leaning against Nat exhaustedly.

Nat doesn't let go, continuing to support her despite her outburst, asking calmly after a moment, "What are you trying to do?"

"I-I don't know what's wrong with Rhodey, but something in me lets me walk out of what would kill normal people unscathed." She explains, pushing off slightly to try and stand on her own two feet, but Nat still keeps a hold of her in case she falters. The woman looks confused, though in Harper's eyes it's obvious.

She doesn't deserve to walk away from gunshot wounds or bombings or paralysis, but she still gets to. She gets to live knowing that although there's a possibility she can be hurt, and hurt badly at that, there's also a high probability that she can walk away completely fine. She doesn't deserve that privilege, but it's still hers.

"If I can replicate it, I can save him." She admits.

Nat looks taken aback, and Harper's not sure by what part. "He might not need saving." She responds, tone reassuring but somewhat disbelieving.

Harper shakes her head. "I'm done taking chances." She murmurs, swallowing a painful lump in her throat, "It leads to catastrophe."

She sounds sad. She sounds sad and pathetic and like everything she doesn't want to be, but that's precisely how she feels. She just wants to fix things, and she tries to ignore the look of pity that Nat gives her as she slumps back down into the uncomfortable lab chair defeatedly.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this. I know you didn't want any of this to happen." Nat says, sighing, and Harper feels her hand on her shoulder, grip reassuring and grounding, "Neither did I."

She knows she didn't. She understand what Nat was trying to do, and as much as she's frustrated that Nat lied to her, she understands that she was trying to protect her, and she does appreciate that even if she's not the best at showing it.

It doesn't change the pure empty feeling that's overwhelming her, and even with Nat with her she feels alone.

* * *

"How's Rhodey?" Harper asks, walking into the quiet kitchen area later that evening. She went to sleep after a trip to the med bay (Nat had insisted, and she didn't have the strength to argue with her). She woke up and got dressed again about twenty minutes ago; walking around the facility made her realize just how empty it is now.

She's been cooped up in the labs for days - pretty much since they got back from Leipzig - so she hasn't exactly had the chance to see how empty the place is. She quickly concluded that she hated the emptiness.

She's relieved to find someone, though it wasn't exactly who she was expecting. She had set out to look for Nat, but instead of finding the red-head, she finds Tony instead, sat at the kitchen counter sipping on some coffee.

She moves to his side, catching a sight of his tired and bruised face. And she thought she looked rough.

"The doctors say he shattered L4 through S1. Extreme laceration in the spinal cord. Probably looking at some form of paralysis."

She knows that she shouldn't be surprised, but it still comes as a shock. She tries to look at it positively, but she can't. All it makes her think of is how she failed.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to catch him." She says honestly, the familiar sinking feeling settling in at the pit of her stomach, and Tony shrugs, taking a sip of his coffee.

"He's a big guy when he gets in that suit. You probably would've struggled."

"You'd be surprised." She responds. A moment of silence passes, emphasising again how empty the place is, and Harper sighs deeply before admitting, "I've been trying to figure out how to help him. I still can't heal wounds, but maybe I can replicate the part of me that can and give it to him."

"You figure it out?"

She shakes his head, "No."

She's been trying. She was trying before any of this even happened - it was one of the many projects she was working on - but despite trying she still hasn't figured it out. She's supposed to be one of the smartest people in the world but she can't figure it out.

Steve would probably tell her not to be so hard on herself, but she can't help it.

"You'll get it." Tony responds, surprising her, adding after another sip of coffee, "If you use your brain."

It actually makes her smirk slightly for the first time in days. It's classic Mr Stark. At least some things haven't changed.

"Did Peter get home okay?" She asks, and he nods back.

"He's very eager, isn't he?" He quips, expression unreadable. He grasps the coffee cup in his hand, "Reminds me of you."

There's no denying that her and Peter are similar. At the end of the day, they're both kids. Kids thrown into a world of superheroes and master assassins and political conflicts, and all either of them have ever wanted to do is the right thing.

"He's better than me." Harper replies, because that's what she's realized through all of this. She's not as good as a person as she thought she was. Peter, however, is good. He's good and strong and brave. He's a good friend.

"I know they say arrogance is a vice, but self loathing isn't too great either."

He's trying to make a joke, but she can't bring herself to laugh.

"As long as he's safe, that's all that matters." She concludes.

She couldn't protect a lot of the people she cares about despite trying so hard to. She's not about to let Peter down too. As long as she knows he's safe, that's what matters.

"He kept saying you said you'd contact him. I'd do it before he gets antsy." Tony remarks, standing from his seat to place the now empty coffee cup in the dishwasher. "He seems like the antsy type." He adds, turning back to her.

She listens to him, because he's right. She probably should give Peter a call.

She gets as far as pulling her phone out of her pocket before everything falls apart again.

"There she is!"

She turns around, alarmed, as multiple men, dressed in full body armor, come up behind her, yanking her arms behind her and locking them in handcuffs before she can react. Her eyes go wide, filled with panic, as Ross walks into the room, expression as stoic as ever, and she looks at Tony worriedly as the Secretary approaches.

"Mr Stark?"

Tony looks just as worried and confused as her, which isn't the slightest bit reassuring. He looks to Ross, tone stern and demanding, "Ross, what are you doing?"

"We have evidence that she helped Rogers and his team of criminals back in Leipzig. Combine that with the violations of the Accords she's already committed, we're well within our rights to take her in." Ross explains. Tony looks at her, expression conflicted and somewhat betrayed, and the sight of his torn face makes her heart clench.

She didn't want to hurt him. She's already hurt enough people.

She's sick of everything falling to pieces.

"If you'd like to tell us where Romanoff is too, your co-operation would be greatly appreciated."

Harper stills, turning to Ross with wide eyes, "What did Nat do?"

She doesn't understand what Nat could've done. She went along with the Accords. She did what they wanted.

"She's gone, Ross. Cleared off without a trace."

With that, everything falls apart again.

She refuses to accept it. Nat couldn't have left. She _wouldn't_ have. She...she would've told her. Nat wouldn't have left her.

"Think about this, Ross." Tony warns, though Harper's hardly paying attention, "Don't rush into anything you'll regret."

"Oh, I doubt that'll be the case." Ross remarks cooly and without hesitation, and Harper would probably glare at him if she was fully paying attention.

She can't break out. She can't fly or teleport. She can't do anything as they drag her away. All she can do is look over at Tony as he gets further and further away with hurt and terrified eyes.


	12. 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated! Stay safe guys!

She's not really conscious as she walks through the prison. She's hardly even walking, instead just letting the guards drag her along as she tries to process her thoughts. She's tried to teleport, but the restrictive collar on her neck seems to be blocking it, and even if she could still teleport she wouldn't know where to go.

She can't go back to the facility because they'll just drag her right back, and she can't go to Peter because that puts him at risk, and she doesn't know where Steve is so she can't go to him, and Nat...

She's on her own, and maybe she deserves that because she played along with all of it until it was too late to really make an impact.

They move into an elevator, armed guard stood either side of her, and her eyes drop to the floor as she feels the elevator begins to descend. She keeps them fixed on the metal ground even when the elevator doors slide open and they lead her into yet another room, dragging her along with ease.

"Harper?"

She reacts to the sound of the familiar voice, tearing her eyes away from the ground to look around, and she doesn't know if she's more so relieved or heartbroken when she sees Sam.

His bruised face looks through the reinforced glass of his cell with concern as the guards drag her past him, throwing her into a cell similar to his, and as the cell door locks tight behind her, the reality of the situation truly sets in.

She's locked up in here.

She can feel four sets of eyes on her as she moves around her cell, trying to become accustomed to the small space, and she quickly concludes that doing so isn't fully possible. She's been in a cell before, and the last time she got out she swore that she wouldn't end up in one again.

"Why'd they bring you in, kid? I thought you were on Team Stark." Scott asks, confused.

"She saved our asses." Clint remarks, leaning up against the side of his cell casually, watching the young girl as she tries to become accustomed to her new living arrangement. "She moved me out of the way of a piece of plane you destroyed when you were huge."

"Tried to get T'Challa away from Bucky too." Wanda adds, surprising the three men, because she's been quiet since they got put in the prison.

They've been restraining the former Sokovian a lot more than they have for the others, fitting her with both a shock collar and a straitjacket. All of them noticed that Harper had an identical collar on when she arrived.

She hasn't admitted it, but they all know that Wanda's taking this a lot harder than all of them. It probably brings back bad memories, given her past.

"She help you too?" Scott asks, glancing over at Sam. He nods, eyes remaining on Harper as she slumps down onto her uncomfortable cell bed. "Right, okay then. So I'm the only one who got their ass kicked." Scott remarks.

Sam doesn't react to his comment, which stands out as odd to Clint considering that he's been poking fun at Scott since they arrived. Wanda notices it too, sharing a glance with Clint, and the man turns towards Sam with an intrigued expression.

"What's up with you, Wilson?" He asks.

Sam snaps out of his daze somewhat, though his eyes remain on Harper, "Natasha wouldn't let her get put in here."

"She left."

Harper's hardly been listening to them, barely managing to keep her emotions and thoughts in check; she's struggling with the former the most, and as she hears Sam talk, she feels her anger flare up above her fear and sadness.

"What?"

"She left and she didn't even tell me." Harper says, voice full of unkept anger and frustration, as she turns away from the wall to glance over at them all. Sam and Clint look stunned. Wanda looks mad. Scott - or the Ant-Man as Harper knows him - looks confused.

"Ross and his team of assholes came and took me right from the facility. Mr Stark tried to stop them, but-."

Clint scoffs, laughing sardonically, "That's funny. Didn't know Tony cared about anyone but himself."

Harper would normally try and defend Tony, but she's not with it right now and she can't bring herself to really react.

"Why would she leave?" Sam asks, confused, and he's doing his best to disguise his anger in front of the kid.

"I don't know." Harper admits, "She lied to me."

Clint scoffs, "Well, there's a lot of that going around."

"Shut up, Barton!" Sam warns, shooting a glare over at the man, and the archer surprisingly doesn't retaliate. Harper figures that he's not in the mood for an argument, and neither is she.

"She said that we'd all look out for each other, a-and I tried. I really tried." She says, voice cracking as the weight on her chest becomes unbearable, and all she can think about is how she failed and made everything fall apart.

She expects Sam to be the one to rush in and contradict her, but she's surprised when Wanda does so instead, "You had people you needed to protect on both sides. No one blames you for what happened." She says, and Harper looks over at her properly for the first time since being thrown in here.

Seeing her in the cell, collar latched around her neck and straitjacket restraining her, only adds to her anger and frustration.

"I don't even blame you for kicking my ass."

Harper looks over at Scott, quirking an eyebrow, and he sighs, shrugging, "Yeah, that's a lie. I just wanted to make you feel better."

She appreciates the attempt despite its failure, and she glances back towards Sam, admitting pitifully, "I tried to fix it."

He nods, "I know."

"I'm sorry that I couldn't fix it."

"It wasn't your problem to fix, kid." Clint tells her, arms crossed as he moves off from the wall of his cell, pacing around the small space, "That's on Stark."

She shakes her head, struggling to contain her frustration. The blame isn't on Mr Stark, at least not entirely.

"No it's not. It's on General Dickwad and his band of assholes." She says, practically hissing, and she stands and moves towards the glass of her cell, yelling because she knows that they're listening. "You hear that, you jackasses?!" She shouts, hitting the glass with her fist as she glares up at no one in particular, anger uncontrolled.

"Harper, cut it out." Sam warns.

She ignores him, continuing to hit the glass as she curses at the guards she can't even see, "You're lucky I'm stuck in here cause I'd kick your sorry asses, you bastards! You hear me?! I would kick yo-!"

She stops abruptly when she feels electricity course through her, sending pain through to her bones. She yells, dropping down to her knees, and then the pain's over as soon as it starts. Her eyes snap back open, and she scrambles to the back of her cell, frightened.

The others look like they knew it was coming, and she figures that they probably did.

"Don't give them a reason to use the collar." Wanda says, eyes both warning and fearful. Harper looks over at her, grimacing at the sight of the identical collar around the other girls neck.

She's gonna kill Ross.

"You can't heal, can you?" She asks, noticing the way Harper winces when she shifts against the wall.

Harper shakes her head, sighing, "There's something in the collar. Some kind of chip that's blocking it. It's like what HYDRA used when they had me."

She's tried to teleport out already, and if she still had her strength, the glass would've smashed to pieces when she struck it. Her hands haven't flared up once either, indicating that Photokinesis is also a bust.

"They block everything?" Sam questions.

"Enhanced Senses are still there. Intelligence, too." Harper explains. Her head's still there, and she can hear heart beats, so she knows that those powers are at least still working. She figures that they couldn't find a way to block them. That or they didn't see them as a threat. "Nothing to do with it though."

"You could figure out a way to get us out of here." Clint suggests, and then she's crying out in pain as more electricity courses through her body, writhing in discomfort.

"Barton!" Sam yells, glaring angrily over at the other man as the electricity ceases, and Harper breathes deeply as she tries to compose herself.

God, that collar hurts like a bitch.

"Sorry, kid." Clint says apologetically with a grimace.

"It's not your fault." She replies, head hitting the back wall of her cell with a sigh, "If I had an idea, we'd be out by now."

She wants to get them out, she really does. Hell, she wanted to get them all out of here before she was even thrown in herself. If teleportation was still on the cards, she could have them all out in seconds. It just sucks that it's not an option anymore. Not as long as she's got that god damn collar on.

"I'd say get comfortable, but it's not exactly a good place to do that in." Clint remarks, settling onto the bed of his own cell, and Harper sighs.

"I've seen worse." She admits, drawing her knees up and hugging onto them tightly, hoping that if she gets small enough she might just disappear from this mess.

If only that were possible.

* * *

"Hey, flashlight. Rise and shine."

Harper wakes up to the sound of someone tapping on the metal bars outside the glass layer of her cell. She jumps up, alarmed and confused, though she relaxes slightly when she comes face to face with Mr Stark instead of the undesirable, cruel face of one of the guards.

"Mr Stark?" She says, surprised by his presence, "What are you doing here?"

She looks past the philanthropist, noticing the looks that both Sam and Clint are giving her from across the rooms. They both seem pissed off, though the former seems more understanding than the latter. Scott's not even looking, instead sitting at the side of his cell, and Wanda's just sat on her bed, staring distantly at the wall.

She grimaces at the sight.

"Thought I'd pay you a visit." Tony replies, and she glances back at him, registering the concern on his bruised face. "They feed you yet?" He asks.

She nods, scoffing, "It's hardly as good as cheeseburgers, I'll say that."

"Yeah, but you can't get mad at them for that." Tony quips back, "Nothing beats cheeseburgers."

She smiles, appreciative of the somewhat lighthearted conversation. She tries to ignore the way his arm's in a sling and his face is bruised, because it only reminds her of everything that's happened, and how badly wrong everything's gone.

"Rhodey doing okay?"

"They're flying him to Colombia Medical tomorrow, so, fingers crossed."

She figured that'd be the case. Getting Rhodey the best medical care possible is the best thing for him right now, and when you're friends with Tony Stark, good medical care isn't too hard to come by.

She sighs, "I'm sorry I couldn't figure it out before they threw me in here."

"You might still be able to help him." He replies, shrugging, and Harper looks back at him confusedly and hopefully, "Who knows? That tech you developed might come in handy."

She nods understandingly. She hadn't even considered her tech. If Rhodey's paralysis is permanent, the tech she developed will offer him something. Not a solution, but an alternative, and these days everyone's having to compromise.

"Mr Stark, wait!" She calls abruptly, catching the man as he begins to walk back towards the exit door, because something incredibly important comes to her mind.

He figures it out for himself.

"Your stuff's safe, kid. No one's gonna break it." He tells her, pausing and turning back to her with a nod, "It's all boxed up. When you get out of this pokey-joint, it'll be waiting."

She sighs in relief, because she knows that he knows what she's referencing - more precisely _who_ she's referencing. Peter's safety is among one of her many concerns, and it's kinda hard for her to protect him when she's locked up in a cell.

"Thank you." She replies gratefully, adding, "Can you keep an eye on it for me?"

If she's not around to keep an eye on Peter, she needs to know that someone will be. Someone that she trusts.

He shrugs, nonchalant. "Why not? It'll give me something to do." He replies, and then he turns away and walks out of the room, the metal doors slamming shut behind him.

She could cry. She could because she's so relieved, but she's not going to because she knows that they're watching, and crying will only make her look weak. She's still worried about him, and she's scared that she'll never stop worrying about him because she'll always have something to worry about, but at least she can be confident in the fact that Tony will look out for him.

"Stark may be an asshole, but he'll keep an eye on it for you, kid." Sam says reassuringly, glancing over at her from across the room, and she can see that he understands what she's thinking about. "Out all of us in here, I think you're the only one he still likes." He tells her, and she nods back, grateful that someone understands.

She feels herself relax for a second, perhaps for the first time since she was thrown in here a few hours ago, but then she hears the doors open, and she can hear her own heart beginning to race all over again.

She moves back towards the glass of her cell, watching the two armed guards vigilantly as they walk into the room. She watches as they go straight for Wanda's cell, unlocking it and storming inside; they grab the former Sokovian, lifting her roughly to her feet, and it's when they pull Wanda through the threshold of her cell that the panic really sets in.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Harper yells, hitting the glass off her cell again, and Wanda's head turns towards her as the guards continue to lead her towards the door.

"Harper, it's ok-!" Clint warns, but she ignores him, continuing to hit the glass and curse at the guards.

She doesn't trust Ross or his associates for obvious reasons, so the thought of them taking any of them, let alone Wanda, out of this room scares her more than words can say. They can't defend themselves, and Ross doesn't seem like the kinda guy to pull people out of their cells for a chat.

"Leave her alone, you assholes! Leave her al-!"

She stops when she's shocked for the third time, the familiar pain rushing through her as she staggers back, clawing at the collar in a futile attempt to make it stop.

She stumbles to the back of her cell when it does, curling in on herself again as she tries to make the pain pass, and the three men opposite her look over at her with concern.

"You okay, kid?" Sam asks, and she nods shakily back, "They're not gonna hurt her, okay? They're just taking her to the showers."

"You're calling those things showers?" Clint scoffs, "I've seen cleaner sewers."

Sam shoots him a look, but chooses not to say anything as he glances back at Harper, trying to make eye contact with the frightened and confused girl.

"We all have allotted times." He explains reassuringly, "She's gonna be fine, okay?"

If anyone else were saying it, she probably wouldn't buy it, but she trusts Sam and she knows he wouldn't lie to her about this. If he says Wanda's gonna be okay, then she believes that she will be.

"God, this place sucks." Scott groans suddenly, rising from his bed and pacing around his cell, clearly agitated.

Harper doesn't blame him. She's been in here for a few hours and she's already fed up.

"I'm with you on that one, Tic Tac." Sam agrees.

"Tic Tac?" Harper questions, confused, and Scott looks over at Sam, exasperated.

"Come on, man!" He protests, "I thought you'd drop that by now!"

Clint chuckles, "Be happy with the nickname, Tic Tac. It means he likes you."

Scott doesn't seem satisfied with that, but he doesn't argue with Sam, probably because he knows he'll lose. The teasing does remind Harper of something however, and she turns towards Scott and remarks, "I never got your actual name."

"Scott."

Scott. It suits him more than Ant-Man or Tic Tac, though Tic Tac is a pretty good nickname.

"I'm sorry I kicked your ass, Scott, and I'm sorry that you're here." She tells him, and he smiles back at her, though it's small and somewhat strained. She glances between the three men, adding, "I'm sorry that all of you are here."

"Stop apologizing, kid." Clint tells her, tone almost instructing as he insists, "It's not your fault."

They keep telling her that, but it doesn't stop her from feeling like it is. She could've prevented all of this, or at least tried harder to, but she didn't.

God, she screwed up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the final chapter of this instalment! The first chapter of the next one will be out soon! Thank you for all the support guys! Stay safe!


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